Neena Gupta recalls 'humiliating' body image remark by Subhash Ghai during Khalnayak, says, "I felt very angry"

Neena Gupta recalls 'humiliating' body image remark by Subhash Ghai during Khalnayak, says, "I felt very angry"

• Neena Gupta recalls anger at body image remark by Subhash Ghai
• She called the padded bra request inappropriate and upsetting
• Gupta also spoke on societal views about single women

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Neena Gupta recently opened up about an uncomfortable and angering moment early in her career involving filmmaker Subhash Ghai during the shooting of the iconic song Choli Ke Peeche from the 1993 hit Khalnayak.

In a candid conversation on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast, Neena Gupta recalled how she felt when Subhash Ghai asked the costume designer to “make her appear fuller” — a remark tied to her body image that left her “very angry” at the time.

Speaking about the incident from decades ago, Neena said the request to wear a padded bra was distasteful and inappropriate, and it struck a nerve when she was new to the industry."At that time, I felt very angry and thought it was inappropriate to say something like that. But now I feel he was just doing his job. He had a certain image in mind for the character in the song, and he expressed it plainly. I was new then — today I understand it differently."

She spoke about the way society perceives single women, saying, “So when I go somewhere, people look at me in a strange way. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t feel comfortable. If you get married, everything seems to become fine. In society, the moment you wear a mangalsutra, people think everything is perfect, even if things are actually falling apart inside. Maybe you’re not even living together, maybe there’s no love, but society assumes you’re now ‘perfect.’

Also read: Neena Gupta says people are ‘afraid’ to ask Viv Richards if they were in love: Why all of you ask only me?

Neena was last seen in Vadh 2 opposite Sanjay Mishra. Prior to that she was featured in director Anurag Basu's anthology film, 'Metro...In Dino' (2025). The movie featured Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anupam Kher, Gajraj Rao and others in key roles.