There was a time when singer Neha Bhasin would look at her stomach and scowl, all because of the insensitive comments that came her way at the initial stage of her career. And it took her a decade to embrace her body. Now, she doesn’t fear being judged for the way she looks, and that’s reflected in her social media posts, too. “I have the healthiest relationship with my body now and that reflects in my size, too. It’s not like because I have a good size, I’ve accepted my body. It’s the other way around,” she says.

Recalling the time when she was subjected to body shaming, Bhasin shares, “When I started my career with Viva (the band she was a part of) in 2002, a lot of body shaming happened, especially within the management. After that, I had a very unhealthy relationship with my body for 10 years, where I was constantly struggling with accepting my body.”

The 39-year-old adds, “For some reason, it (the shape and appearance of her stomach) became an obsession, as I kept hearing about it. Somebody would come and say, ‘You look great, but the stomach wasn’t okay’. I reached a point where whenever I looked at my picture, I always looked at my stomach [first]. It became a negative obsession for me. I kept picking diets, spending extra hours working out, yet was never happy with my body.”

The Jag Ghoomeya (Sultan; 2016) and Parwah singer started embracing her body when she turned 30. “During one of my therapy sessions, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘I don’t have a perfect stomach, so I will never be an international pop star’,” recalls the singer, adding, “I remember while researching back then, I couldn’t find a single pop star across the world who didn’t have abs. Today, people are far more accepting of all body types. At that time, body shaming was a natural thing.”