Shehnaz Treasury says Ishq Vishk director body shamed her, put her on diet

Shehnaz Treasury, best known for her Bollywood debut film Ishq Vishk, in which she starred alongside Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao, is today a full-time travel content creator, sharing knowledge and experiences from her journeys. Recently, the actress opened up about the body shaming she faced during the making of Ishq Vishk. She revealed that the director criticized her body and enforced a strict diet to make her appear thinner for the film.

Shehnaz Treasury recalls body shaming incident

In Ishq Vishk, Shehnaz played the role of Alisha, considered the prettiest girl in college. Talking about the pressures of the role, she told ETimes, “In college, there was all that pressure too — you know, like Neeli neeli aankhon wali kaun hai wo — and then the director was like, ‘You’ve got to wear green lenses, you have to be perfect, you have to look great. Oh, you don’t look good in some angles; actresses are supposed to look good in all angles,’ as if it was my fault.”

Shehnaz further revealed that she was body-shamed on set and forced to diet, while another actress in the film was padded up for being too thin. She said,
“I was told, ‘Oh, you’re too fat, your belly is sticking out, you need to diet.’ The other girl in the movie was so thin — they were padding her, putting pads on her — while they were trying to shrink me. So I was on some crazy diet. They wouldn’t let me eat. It was so ridiculous. And it was so sad. Looking back, I can’t believe we had to go through those things. In fact, the world we live in today is much nicer to actors and more accepting of all shapes and sizes.”

About Ishq Vishk

Released in 2003 and directed by Ken Ghosh, Ishq Vishk marked Shahid Kapoor’s debut. The film follows childhood friends Rajiv Mathur (Shahid Kapoor) and Payal Mehra (Amrita Rao). As they grow up together, Payal falls in love with Rajiv, but he remains oblivious to her feelings. Shehnaz portrayed Alisha Sahay, Rajiv’s glamorous love interest in the first half of the film. The movie was a huge hit and became a craze among the youth of the early 2000s.