Avika Gor, known for her show ‘Sasural Simar Ka’, started off as a child actor and underwent quite a transformation on screen. The actress says that although things were working in her favour, she wasn’t happy with how she looked onscreen which motivated her to work on herself.
“I had people approaching me for work, I had this amazing career going on and everything was fine, but I wasn't happy. I wasn't comfortable in my skin. I would look up to people of my age and think about why I am not like that. Now, when I look back, I see that it was just the extra fat that I needed to get rid of. I felt confident once I started to lose weight. I became emotionally and mentally stronger, I realised that this is where I can reach by being the best version of myself. I was cribbing because I wasn't trying enough,” she says.
However, it was not easy. “There were phases where I did everything but still could not see the numbers going down, it frustrated me because there are times when you lose patience. The only thing that kept me grounded was the thought of giving one year to myself. I tried my best and I am proud that I did not give up. The moment I started to work towards what was bothering me, I realised that I like myself and I am doing this for myself,” she says.
The actress says that her major motivation was also the type of characters that she was being offered. “A lot of ideal beauty standards are changing. Now, it’s more real. The projects that I have been approached for are not the typical characters that one sees usually. There are people who asked me to become fitter but it was not about looking like a perfect Bollywood actress. It’s just about being the best version of my character. Obviously, if it’s an action movie and I am playing a cop, I need to look a certain way. I have seen people accepting different kinds of beauty. Maybe it’s during the pandemic, where people started talking that it's okay to be plus-size,” she concludes.
