Awoman walks a red carpet at Cannes. She has won Miss World. And, she has acted in critically acclaimed films across two decades. She has represented her country on one of cinema’s most prestigious stages for 24 consecutive years. And still, the first question the internet asks is:
This is what happened to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at Cannes 2026, just days ago. Again.
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The Cannes ritual of humiliation
Aishwarya’s Cannes appearances have long been a flashpoint for online cruelty. Her Cannes 2026 appearance triggered a wave of body-shaming comments on social media, with trolls comparing her to Rakhi Sawant. The comparison was not meant as a compliment. It was a double insult, designed to demean two accomplished women at once.
Many users trolled Aishwarya for her puffy face and weight, comparing her to Alia Bhatt. Some pointed out that while Alia has made just a few appearances at Cannes, Aishwarya has been representing the country at the film festival for decades.
This is the particular cruelty of the discourse. The trolls do not disappear when the evidence of a woman’s worth is overwhelming. They get louder.
Despite being a global brand ambassador, acclaimed actor, and former Miss World, much of the public commentary has focused on her looks rather than her legacy.
Some voices did push back. writing that style is self-expression and that no woman owes anything to anyone. She challenged those who had something to say about Aishwarya’s look to “show what you got,” adding that people needed to get used to seeing older women on red carpets.
Renuka Shahane was equally blunt earlier. She strongly condemned the trolling, urging people to “just shut their mouths” if they have nothing kind to say.
Post-pregnancy bodies and the public verdict
The cruelty that Aishwarya has faced is not new, and it is not hers alone. There is a specific, vicious category of body shaming reserved for women whose bodies change after childbirth. The message is consistent: your body belonged to the public before your pregnancy, and we will decide when you have earned it back.
Aishwarya was body-shamed after she gave birth to her daughter Aaradhya in 2011. When she made her Cannes red carpet appearance in 2012, she was trolled online for the weight gain. In an interview she later said: “People think that if you look a certain way, you won’t be judged. But, believe me, irrespective of how you look, everybody faces judgement for something or the other.”
Kareena Kapoor Khan has faced the same wall of judgment, repeatedly. After giving birth, she was targeted online for having “fat legs” and a “double chin,” and faced ongoing comments about not losing weight quickly enough.
She had walked the ramp after pregnancy and netizens brutally trolled her for her weight gain. Kareena’s response, by most accounts, has been to refuse to perform regret.
Neha Dhupia faced the same. Post giving birth to her first child, Neha Dhupia was trolled left, right and centre for putting on weight. She faced nasty comments on her body and was fat-shamed again when she resumed work after her second child. She reportedly responded by questioning why weight gain after childbirth was treated as a moral failing.
When you are too thin, too dark, too much
The cruelty is not limited to weight gain. The target shifts to fit whatever a woman’s body happens to be doing at any given moment.
Deepika Padukone was thin-shamed several times for her body whenever she posted pictures online. The trolling worked in both directions; gain weight and you are fat, lose weight and you are sick or attention-seeking.
Tara Sutaria has spoken about this pendulum of abuse. She said she was labelled anorexic at one point and then later shamed for gaining weight for her film ‘Marjaavaan’. “People will go to say a lot of hurtful things to you. Such comments used to bother me a lot in the beginning but not anymore,” she said.
Taapsee Pannu has faced a specific brand of body shaming that tries to punish her for being muscular and athletic. She was once called a “mard ki body wali” by a troll, and shut them down with a pointed response.
Vidya Balan and the weight of expectations
Vidya Balan has refused to let the industry or its audience define what her body should look like, but that refusal has come at a personal cost.
In a video confronting the issue directly, Balan said: “Most of us are potential victims of body shaming, the widespread phenomenon of receiving cruel feedback when our bodies don’t meet the unrealistic beauty standards of our time.”
She also recalled that even before she entered the film industry, people called her “moti” and she faced body shaming. “It really affects our confidence,” she said. “Physical fitness shouldn’t be achieving an unrealistic goal to look a certain way and thinking that is beautiful.”
When a reporter once asked her whether she planned to lose weight for her roles, she did not apologise. She turned the question back. Her response was: “What’s the relationship between women-centric and weight loss? I’m very happy with the kinds of roles I am doing. It would be great if you could change your mindset.”
Swara Bhasker is another voice who keeps flagging these problematic trolls every once in a while.
The systemic pattern behind the pile-on
It would be convenient to call this the behaviour of a few bad actors online. It is not. It’s a pattern, consistent enough to name, and it targets women in a way it does not target men.
Users have called the body-shaming of actresses “sexist, regressive and deeply disappointing,” arguing that society continues to judge women primarily through their looks while ignoring their achievements.
No matter how much a woman has achieved, people still decide her worth based on her physical features. Society especially hates those women who are confident. Bodies change after giving birth. Bodies also change with age. Instead of embracing this, trolls shame women for not looking the way they did at 21.
Male actors gain and lose weight for roles and are celebrated for their commitment. Female actors gain weight for any reason (age, pregnancy, illness, simple living) and are punished for it.
Sonakshi Sinha fought back in a different way. She ran a campaign titled “Ab Bas” against cyber abuse and took legal action against trolls after facing massive harassment online.
What this costs women
The cost of this culture is not abstract. Parineeti Chopra spoke openly about the psychological weight of it. She was constantly made fun of and wrote about the experience of laughing along with people who mocked her body, a survival mechanism that speaks to how internalised the shame can become.
Sonam Kapoor revealed on a talk show that she faced body shaming when she gained weight, being called too fat, too thin, too tall, too everything. She described the experience of people questioning her desirability.
Ileana D’Cruz has spoken about overcoming deep-rooted body insecurities caused by years of online commentary.
Body shaming is not criticism. It is control. The women who have faced this and spoken about it. They have refused to disappear. That refusal is its own form of resistance. But it should not have to be. The trolls have had the floor long enough.