Mrunal Thakur on her struggle with body shaming, how Akshay Kumar helped boost confidence

In today’s day and age, with the world becoming a digital-first arena, unfortunately, body shaming has become disturbingly normalized. It often comes disguised in the form of opinions or random commentary. One can say that social media has truly amplified unrealistic beauty standards, which in turn has made constant scrutiny feel like a routine. Even celebrities have not been spared, with their appearances dissected and criticized daily. Mrunal Thakur, for instance, has always spoken up about dealing with insensitive body-shaming comments and very recently opened up about her experience of struggling with it and how Akshay Kumar helped boost her confidence.

The actress, in a recent conversation with News18, shared how she faced years of online trolling because of her weight and was constantly body-shamed because of the way she looked. She would be trolled because of her pear-shaped physique, which is something that is rather common in women, but netizens have become used to actresses of a certain kind of body type.

Mrunal said, “I’ve had my days. There were days I would go to bed crying and cry myself to sleep. I would wake up with puffy eyes and tell myself that it’s not worth it.”

She further went on to add, “It took me a lot of courage to overcome that. There were a lot of people around me who weren’t motivating enough. In fact, when I would walk into the gym, I would feel like my body is a four on ten. But this one time, a girl walked up to me and told me that she wants a body like me. I told her, ‘And I want a body like yours’. In her head, I was a ten on ten. Her perspective made me question, why can’t I be happy the way I am? I understood that if I value myself, only then people will value me.”

Mrunal then went on to speak about how embracing her body and accepting curves helped change everything. She emphasized how Indian women are of a certain body kind, and hence it is almost unnecessary to push to be any different. Mrunal’s words pointed out that it all begins with self-acceptance.

She said, “Indian women are curvy. There isn’t much alteration that I can do. My bone structure is a certain way and I can’t do anything about it. The only thing I can do is embrace myself. It’s so important to be comfortable in your skin and body. I believe acceptance is very important. The day I accepted my body is the day when people also started loving it.”

Mrunal then went on to reveal how Akshay Kumar’s words made a mark in her heart and gave her a boost of confidence. The actor had complimented her for accepting herself the way she is and not paying heed to the noise around her but at the same time had advised her to cut weight if a role demanded her to do so.

The ‘Sita Ramam’ actress recalled, “I had met Akshay sir, and what he told me was very beautiful. He said to me, ‘I’m so happy that you’ve embraced this version of yourself. It’s great that you don’t listen to the voices around you that tend to trigger you or say a thousand things, and you just do what you feel. But if a role requires you to cut down, do that. I’ll remember his words. Aur woh jo dialogue hai na from Jab We Met ki ‘main apni favourite,’ woh mujhe aaj samajh mein aaya hai.”

In terms of work, Mrunal’s latest film, Do Deewane Seher Mein, was released on 20 February 2026. The film saw her star opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi in a romantic drama centered on love and self-discovery for the first time. The actress has been on a strong run with back-to-back diverse roles, further cementing her place in the industry. Meanwhile, she also made headlines off-screen after being romantically linked with Dhanush, sparking buzz across social media.