All Bakwaas!

THE COVER Girls on magazines never looked more perfect. But it’s not original beauty. They’ve been retouched for your consumption. Recently, Kate Winslet stirred a controversy on how her picture used in a magazine, made her look too lean. It was unreal!
We agree, you have a point Kate. She’s not the only one, we’ve had Rani Mukerji complain to a photographer how he, “retouched her nose too much”, Aamir Khan also protested “don’t change my original colour tone” after he was made to look shades fairer on photoshop. Then there’s Bipasha Basu who wants her “eye bags removed at all costs”, and so does Shobhaa De! Well, actor Sherlyn Chopra goes a step further, “I’ve learnt photoshop myself, to do things to my body. I’m very busty, I started shrinking my bustline on photoshop.” Hence, our cover picture of Sherlyn, is a before and after case in point.

Vanity does strange things to people. There’s no orginality in fashion photography. The bodies you see are retouched to perfection. Even The Independent reports, “never has society’s pursuit of youth and beauty been so voracious”. Says fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar, “Who wants to see real beauty? We enhance beauty. We work on blemishes, thin hairline and shape the body. Nobody needs a reality check. Why, I even use photoshop to make the men look better.”

Why even Elizabeth Hurley has confessed she doesn’t mind her photographs being retouched. She said in an interview, “I don’t mind getting rid of those spots.”



So, how much of reality and originality is there in celeb pictures? “Quite a bit”, says photographer Vikram Bawa, who shoots Bollywood personalities, “We have different requests from Bollywood stars and celebrities who know which areas they want retouched.” But imagine a model’s nightmare, when she sees a bad job. Says model Joey Matthews, “Once, my picture was digitally retouched on photoshop, it didn’t look like me. My hair looked different, they gave me cheekbones. I was aghast!”

But is this deception? Making celebrities look like something they just aren’t. Why Maitri, a Mumbai-based model, who has shot for Ezone and is also a stylist for Ram Gopal Varma’s movie Aag says, “In Ezone advertisement, they’ve multiplied my hair. It just doesn’t look like me.”
Let’s face facts, the camera does lie -- it hides your wrinkles, spots and acne. Almost every picture is doctored. We often remove the eye bag, clear the pimples before using any image. Says supermodel Riya Ray, “Often my skin tone looks lighter, I get very upset. Do we need to manipulate all glamour pictures. Let’s have some originality.” That’s something Belgium-born model Kanira agrees, “Globally retouching is the quickest way to get glamourous results.” Sometimes, even Bollywood stars aren’t in control of their pictures. This current trend is here to stay. We don’t like to see our starry role models look fat, wrinkly or tired. Says photographer Anushka Menon, “We don’t want you to see the unpretty things. We give you the prettiest of pictures.”


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