There’s not much left to say about celebrities and their penchant for plastic surgery. They’re overexposed — suspended in skin-deep professions, their value derived from how they look. They’re perpetually being consumed by their well-wishers as well as their detractors. And when there’s nothing left to extract, their careers come to a slow, meandering halt. Their options are limited — that’s what happens when you’re rich and famous.
The surgery ends and the real challenges begin. Again, options are few and far between. There’s bashful denial (no, I just drink a lot of water and use sunscreen), honest attribution (immaculate genes and god’s grace), and tepid admission (a filler might or might not have been involved). Rajkummar Rao chose the third.
However, the actor has distanced himself from the photograph doing the rounds, saying it has been retouched. “My skin is looking flawless,” he said, referring to the now viral picture. He claims he got fillers eight or nine years ago. Though, fillers need to be replenished, and touch-up injections need to be taken on the regular.
Rao’s ‘transformation’
The actor has a fair quantity of hits to his name, even if he doesn’t carry much star power. In fact, he has managed to cultivate a space for himself, subverting the ‘hero’ archetype. And now looks pretty much unrecognisable. It doesn’t take much to deduce that eyebrows will be raised, and questions will be asked. Chances are, he’ll be made fun of.
He’s not exactly a victim, and in this algorithmic way of life, the content you consume isn’t always voluntary. Not everyone’s dying to know about Rajkummar Rao. Plus, female celebrities go through it all the time — and their bodies are dissected in far more insidious ways. Meanwhile, contentious as it may be, there’s something rather comical about Rao’s ‘transformation’.
It’s definitely his prerogative to confirm or deny rumours. He seems to have chosen a comfortable middle ground, telling Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra that he’s one of those people who “always keeps his chin up” — in response to being asked about the absence of his square jaw. Somehow, it’s more alive than ever. It’s unlikely that journalists were asking questions about chins back in the day.
According to plastic surgeons on YouTube and Instagram, it’s not just his newly mown jaw. He’s received many celebrity-favourite procedures, including a nose job and buccal fat removal. Going by his recent comments, it’s a new lease of life. Apparently, after residual fat, insecurities are next in line.
Also read: There’s too much Akshay Kumar on screen. Take a break and come back with a Hera Pheri
Indulging fantasies
Several celebrities and influencers, both in India and in the West, have given detailed sermons on the surgeries, implants, and fillers they’ve received. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, since it’s an effective mode of reaching people who have the desire and resources to get these procedures. It represents a certain opening up of society – disposable incomes have gone up, people have the money to invest in their bodies, and they want to be safe and aware.
There’s a question, however, that’s worth asking: Do money and access mean we have the god-given right to indulge every fantasy? If you don’t like a part of your body, should you just change it? It’s perhaps moralistic to say no and also discounts the dysmorphic. But, at the same time, it’s unsettling to think that there are so many solutions, and no redressal mechanisms for the actual problem — our fraught relationships with ourselves and our bodies.
That’s also why discussing the dramatic (often surgical, even if they say otherwise) alteration of a celebrity can be an interesting conversation. If you don’t fit into a beauty ideal, life becomes difficult. And most people can give fervent speeches on how they hate their bodies and how heavily that weighs on them. It’s a window into celebrity culture, the cult of relatability, and the ways in which we see them and they see us.
Even if it’s not Shah Rukh Khan, only the humdrum Rajkummar Rao.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)