Raashii Khanna was last seen as Aliyah in Ajay Devgn’s debut web series – ‘Rudra: The Edge of Darkness’. Though she debuted in 2013 with John Abraham’s ‘Madras Café’ she didn’t do Bollywood movies after that, instead she headed towards South Cinema where she has worked in several Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films.
Recalling the early days, Raashii Khanna said that she was bullied online and fat-shamed with some even calling her ‘Gas tanker’.
Raashii opened up about the difficulty she faced in maintaining her weight over the years. Raashii got candid and admitted that the comments on her weight did bother her but she did not respond to that criticism as even she felt she was overweight when compared to South Indian movie standards.
When she was asked what the worst criticism she faced was, the actress told Bollywood Hungama, “I think the worse is just that initially when I…actually I have been lucky with the roles I’ve got…but probably necessarily relating to my weight, because they used to say I am a gas tanker and stuff like that in the South when I started and I don’t say anything because I was quite big for the mainstream that they have. And I did become fitter in time, not to please anybody, but because I know that the job requires that. So, I’ve faced all that bullying, online bullying, and stuff like that, and it honestly didn’t bother me.”
Raashii also said that suffered from PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Disease), a condition that makes it tough to maintain one’s weight. She was asked if the comments on her weight just when she started her career bothered her and the actress replied, “Yes, I was like ‘itna kyu faraq pad raha hai (why do they care so much). Like I am still doing well and of course, I had issues, PCOD, all those jazz which everybody goes through. But that nobody knows, what they see is what they see on screen. So, I can’t blame them. Initially it did hit me, but I am also a very spiritual person so it sorts of helps switch off. So, I don’t care.”
Raashii has earned a lot of praise for her grey character ‘Aliyah’ in ‘Rudra: The Edge of Darkness’. The series that is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar is the Hindi remake of BBC’s ‘Luther’. Raashii is currently shooting for a Tamil movie titled ‘Sardar’, alongside Tamil actor, Karthi. She will also be seen in ‘Yodha’, along with Siddharth Malhotra and Disha Patani. ‘Yodha’ marks Raashii’s return to Bollywood after 8 years.
