Priyamani: People Called Me ‘Fat’ And ‘Aunty’

Actress Priyamani, who has had copious amounts of success here in the South, is taking Bollywood by storm with The Family Man series. Her role as Manoj Bajpayee’s on-screen wife Suchi received accolades with no boundaries attached. Her stellar performance also made her enjoy an immense following in Hindi belts. But, as always, we have naysayers who try to meddle with people reaching triumph. Priyamani was and is still being body-shamed and colour discriminated miserably.

Not so long ago, Samantha said that she faced trolls so badly that she had to spend sleepless nights. Now after Sam, her co-star in the series, Priyamani’s unfortunate turn to fall victim to these sickening trolls. The actress had to endure vitriolic comments on her skin colour and for her body weight. She said that people started calling her ‘fat’ and ‘aunty’ after she gained weight. “After people called me fat, I worked hard and lost some weight. But, the trolls did not stop and I’m still fat for some people,” she said.

“Being on the bigger side or being on the smaller side, it is each person to himself,” she added. Talking about skin-tone bias, Priyamani shared that some people filled her Instagram comment section with pathetic choice of words like ‘Oh you’re looking black, you’re looking dark.’ She gave back to trolls saying – “Look, what is wrong, even if I am a dark-skinned person, first of all, change your opinion, don’t call anybody black because black is beautiful”. From time immemorial, it has been like this. People do not want to appreciate the rawness of anything and we, as a society, have been fed with a standard for what we call “beautiful”.

This National Award winner was seen in Hindi films such as Raavan, Rakht Charithra 2, Ateet and Chennai Express. But her performance as Suchi in The Family Man series endeared herself to a pan-India audience. On the work front, Priyamani is all set to entertain her Telugu fans with Virata Parvam and Narappa. The actress will also be seen in a couple of Kananda films and a Hindi flick, Maidaan, starring Ajay Devgn.