Shilpa Shetty Kundra needs no introduction. But when she does, the 40-year-old puts it quite succinctly: “I am a full-time mother and a part-time worker”.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra needs no introduction. But when she does, the 40-year-old puts it quite succinctly: “I am a full-time mother and a part-time worker”.
Clad in a crisp jacket and Louboutin heels, Shilpa looked every inch an international celebrity at an interactive session at YFLO in Hyderabad titled ‘A holistic approach to life and a scientific way of being fit’. But it is on closer inspection that one realises how grounded she still is in traditional values — a swastika tattoo and a holy thread tied across her left wrist that symbolises “well-being and well-being”. And it’s this sentiment that’s reflected in her debut book, The Great Indian Diet, which is co-authored by Luke Coutinho. From a mother to a writer “Throughout my life I have weighed 56 to 60 kg. But with pregnancy, I suddenly piled on an extra 32 kg. My clothes wouldn’t fit and I felt so lethargic. Even when it came to being on the panel of Nach Baliye in 2012, I couldn’t fit into anything. I called up Manish Malhotra at the last moment to send across some anarkalis, with a lot of kalis that would camouflage my flab,” says Shilpa, whose wake-up call came when she was out with her husband for brunch one Sunday. “We were at the table and I overheard a group of women say, ‘Oh! She still hasn’t lost the pregnancy weight’. And that’s when it hit me. Most women after pregnancy become complacent about their health, and I had to do something about mine,” she says. And within three and a half months, the weight was gone. “Everything comes down to discipline. I had been going to the gym since my Dhadkan days — I was on the plump side and the director wanted me to look like Gwyneth Paltrow, not really sure what that meant — eating right and doing cardio. I took up yoga when I started suffering from health issues.” But the need to write a book came forth when her son had a mosquito bite — “which I diagnosed as chicken pox after looking it up online,” she says, adding, “That’s exactly what we do when we pick diet plans off the web — incorporate details in our diet without really having any knowledge of what the food is doing to us.”
Later, Shilpa met Goan-born Luke Coutinho, who suggested they work on a book.
“Writing is not my forte. But ever since I lost weight after the pregnancy, people have been interested in how I did it. And the trick lay in no fad or some exotic diet, but our Indian food. We underestimate the power of our spices and it’s the forgotten treasure trove that we hope to bring back in the spotlight with this book,” says Shilpa, who is working on another book.
Some of the lifestyle modifications that she gave her eager audience were: Chew your water, drink your food and don’t have anything raw after 4 pm such as salads; and no fruits after 6 pm. “Soy milk is great for women; not so much for men,” she says. The actress who has recently turned into a vegetarian says, “I have two spoons of ghee, as it builds metabolism, every afternoon. Fresh grated coconut — I am a Mangalorian, I love coconut in everything —, haldi and a high fibre diet is also a must. Fasting is the best form of detox.”
Trip down memory lane “What many people are unaware of is that Kajol hates wearing make-up and refused to wear any for Baazigar. I, on the other hand, would tell the make-up artist to put on as much as he liked. No wonder people remember me the most from the movie,” jokes Shilpa, adding, “I have worked for 22 years in the film industry. I started with not knowing what I was doing to having a different set of priorities. I am working on so many projects right now and I don’t know when I’ll be working on my next film.”
