The trailer of Dhamaal 4 has everything audiences have come to expect from the franchise  — slapstick, loud humour, and an ensemble cast. But amid the flying punches and comic mayhem, one thing stood out: actor Anjali Anand wasn’t just another face in the crowd. She was paired opposite Riteish Deshmukh, dancing in songs, featuring prominently in the promotions, and occupying space that mainstream Hindi comedies have rarely offered women who don’t fit Bollywood’s conventional beauty template.

It also reopened a familiar debate. Can commercial Hindi cinema move beyond using a plus-sized actor as the butt of a joke?

Anand doesn’t dodge the question. “I was hesitant in the beginning,” she says, “Even I didn’t want to represent something where the body becomes the conversation. I told myself, ‘If I don’t do this part, someone else will.’ Rather than giving this responsibility to somebody else, I wanted to play the character and play her the way she should be played. I didn’t want her to become a bechari who simply keeps listening to people.”

“Those films are still being made because society still thinks like this. People can argue with me, but I always tell them, ‘Go and read the comments on my social media.’ There’s a lot of love, yes, but there are also people who have never seen someone like me getting a lead part.”

The word “fat”, she says, has acquired a power it shouldn’t have. “For me, ‘fat’ isn’t an offensive word. We’ve conditioned ourselves to think thin is good, fat is bad, fair is good, dark is bad. I’ve spent years changing that conditioning in my own head.”

Unlike many public conversations around GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, Anand’s response isn’t moralistic. “My weight has never made me unhappy,” she says, “People have made me unhappy because of my weight. There’s a difference.”

She laughs when she is told people assume she must be unhealthy. “I probably have the best blood reports among people I know. I trek, I dance for hours, I go scuba diving, I paraglide. I’ve never looked at myself as somebody who needs fixing. If somebody wants to take a GLP-1 because it genuinely makes them happier, then please do it but under a doctor’s supervision. Who am I to judge? We have medicines for everything. If this helps somebody live a happier life, why shouldn’t they? The question is whether you’re doing it because you want to, or because you’re listening to everyone else.”

Anand has become one of the few actors expected to shoulder conversations around representation while simultaneously navigating an industry that still views her body before her talent. The irony isn’t lost on her. 

“I don’t see my body,” she says matter-of-factly, “I just see myself as a person. In the beginning, I got swept into the whole body positivity movement. Later I realized, that’s not me. I’m not body positive. I’m just a good person and I expect other people to be good people.”

Three years have passed since Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023) introduced her to a much wider audience as Ranveer Singh’s warm-hearted sister. Ironically, she says, success hasn’t quite given her an identity of her own.

“People still call me Ranveer’s sister. Now they’ll probably call me Riteish’s wife,” she laughs, “The day people call me Anjali, that’s when I’ll feel like they’ve actually started seeing me.”

That recognition, she believes, still comes most powerfully through the big screen. “When we were growing up, social media didn’t exist. Brands didn’t exist. OTT didn’t exist. Those things are wonderful and I hope I keep getting more work there. But there’s something about the big screen. That’s where your inner child lives. I’m hoping Dhamaal reminds people that I still exist. This is my tenth year in the industry. Everybody tells me somebody should write a great film for me. I hope God is listening.”

For Anand, perfection has never been the goal. “I don’t want to spend my whole life trying to become perfect. I want to live my life. A hundred years from now, people won’t remember any of us. Why should I waste my life chasing somebody else’s definition of beauty?” The answer, perhaps, explains why she continues to choose visibility.

She knows Dhamaal 4 won’t end Bollywood’s dependence on easy fat jokes overnight. But she hopes a few will remember something else. That a woman who didn’t fit Bollywood’s conventional mould stood at the centre of one of Hindi cinema’s biggest comedy franchises and looked like she belonged there all along.