Distress over dress size: A look at yesteryear's trends

OLD VS NEW: Hema Malini would've had a weighty issue to deal with in today's rat race.

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Mumbai: Even though Kareena Kapoor’s zero dress size has caught every one’s attention today, there was a time when a slim Size-10 Simi Garewal was considered too western for Bollywood.

A Hema Malini, Asha Parekh or Vyjyanthimala would have a weighty issue to deal with if they were in the rat race today.

For them healthy and well rounded was the way to be. So what if they had to squeeze into bikinis and micro-minis with love handles showing?

In fact, such was the stocky 'mass appeal' during the time that a perfect ten Simi Garewal was dismissed as 'too western' for the Indian audience.

But this rounded picture was boned out when a new breed of actresses like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi swung into the silverscreen in the late 70s.

As Bollywood's exposure to the west increased, so did the pressure to go thin.

Sridevi may have started off as Miss Thunder Thighs but by the late 90s the trend of models turning actresses ensured that almost every heroine in Bollywood was a Perfect 10.

And now films like Dhoom 2 rely more on the cast's slim and sculpted bodies to draw in an audience than the script. And all this perfect body talk gives impressionable minds a negative body image.

But as most trends in showbiz go, the audiences liking for a certain body type may too fluctuate

Blame it on sub-continental fascination with buxom babes, genetics or our diet, try as hard as you want to be Indian and Keira Knightly at the same time is kind of difficult; maybe you are born on the wrong side of the Arabian Sea.