“I am pregnant, not a corpse!” reacted Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor Khan sharply when asked if she would continue to work despite her pregnancy.

Nearly six months pregnant and looking radiantly happy, Kareena, while caressing her protruding belly, walked the ramp as a showstopper for fashion world’s poster-boy, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, at the recent Lakme Fashion Week in India.

Dressed in a heavily-embroidered, blingy lehenga choli and dupatta, a regal-looking and broadly smiling Kareena said: “Actually it was two of us walking the ramp together,” referring to her baby.

Further ticking off the media persons, she said, “What maternity break? This is the most natural thing on earth! It’s time the media backed off. Anyone who is bothered shouldn’t work with me.”

Times are a-changin’ and nowhere is it more visible than for Bollywood’s new mums

Beautifully said, but it almost appeared orchestrated. Is Kareena heralding a new trend or is she putting up a brave face in an industry which is superficial and gives premium to an actor’s physical appearance, especially when it comes to women?

It’s natural for pregnant women to have weight issues post-delivery. However beautiful motherhood is, it does take a toll on a woman. Unlike working women in other professions who are not expected to look good 24x7, in show business and modeling size does matter!

In an industry where a Friday release brings with it a lot of insecurities, would a film producer or a director want to take a risk by casting a woman who once became famous for her size zero appearance? That’s a moot question everyone seems to have on their lips.

Kareena isn’t a lone wolf in this situation. Before her, many female actors have faced the axe after marriage and motherhood. Forget about the last century. Even in this millennium, actors known for their beauty found offers for roles drying up. Just ask Sonali Bendre, Shilpa Shetty, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Sridevi, Raveena Tandon, Twinkle Khanna, Karishma Kapoor and others.

Interestingly, these women still possess their scintillating looks. They still scorch the screen when they appear on TV shows. But films rarely come their way. Kajol and Aishwarya, two very influential ladies in the industry, courtesy family relations and clout, do get roles now and then. But they are so far apart that many of the younger generation don’t even know these stars.

These yesteryear ladies are forced to come up with statements like “I will do only meaningful roles” or “I want to be a hands-on mum for my kids.” What ‘meaningful’ roles are they talking about in Bollywood? And being a ‘hands-on mum’ when they have a bevy of helpers at home and even when they are out and about? Puhleeze!

The evergreen Hema Malini had once admitted in an interview that it wasn’t her idea to stop acting following her marriage to actor Dharmendra but that offers had dried up, more so, post-delivery of daughter Esha. Last year Saif Ali Khan while promoting his film Phantom did acknowledge that even gossip about marriage plans plays havoc with the careers of female stars.

Circa 2012, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan was signed for the film Heroine. The day she announced her pregnancy, she was dropped and Kareena Kapoor roped in for the movie. A year later, even Kareena Kapoor was replaced from the film Goliyon ki Rasleela-RamLeela when she announced her wedding plans.

The cine world is different for male actors – being married or having fathered kids doesn’t seem to affect them. The Khan triumvirate – Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir – and Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Hrithik Roshan etc still rule the industry. Most of them began their career with some of these leading ladies who have now become mothers. Plus they are years older than these divas. Looks-wise these women still look ravishing any day whereas the Khans and others have started looking their age … some even past it. But they still rule and get to release two to three films a year. Techniques such as air-brushing and prosthetics are used to make these male superstars appear 10-15 years younger than their biological age.

While industry insiders spread the rumour that fans reject married women, the question is, do they? Films with a good story – irrespective of the age of the stars and their marital status – continue to be welcomed by the audience. Did Hrithik Roshan manage to make the film Mohenjo Daro a success? It flopped because of content. Sridevi’s comeback film English Vinglish was one of the most profit-making films of 2012. It was content that proved its might. Almost overnight, Sridevi managed to put back the clock to her Mr India days.

In her acceptance speech in 2002, when Madhuri Dixit won the Filmfare award for best supporting role in the popular awards category for her act of Chandramukhi in the film Devdas, she said, “This is to show all those people who had written me off by saying I am married and have put on weight!” She was 35 and married for three years. But after that she had two children and the roles completely dried up.

The audience is never at fault. In the olden days things were different as the films made then were also very different. They were the typical Bollywood masala films with stories like boy-meets-girl, they sing songs and prance around the trees, get separated and then meet again to live happily ever after. Those were the times when films had only one end: marriage.

But not anymore!

Things have changed. Society has changed and the audience craves a good script, immaterial of age and the looks of the actors. Hopefully Mum Kareena will herald a new era in the Indian film industry.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 18th, 2016