On Neha Dhupia's Birthday, Recalling The Times When She Was A Total Badass

Neha Dhupia is celebrating her 42nd birthday today, let's remember the iconic moments when Dhupia stood up for herself and all other women and showed the world her resilience and strength.

Dhupia was recently seen in the movie A Thursday starring Yami Gautam. Dhupia's social media presence is quite interesting as she shares various beautiful moments with her children and husband, also posting her motherhood journey as she navigates through life. She has set trends against problematic social norms and made them look cool. Dhupia resumed work during her pregnancy. In interviews, Dhupia has shared her opinion about parenting according to her experiences.

Five Neha Dhupia Badass Moments

1. Neha Dhupia won Miss India in 2002 and celebrated her winning anniversary twenty years later with an important note. Dhupia wrote on social media, "20 years that went by in a flash … but if I shut my eyes and think, all I have is gratitude in my heart. I didn’t think that it would be possible to wear this crown on stage again and relive one of the most precious moments of my life with my most precious people", she continues, "20 years later I stood taller, stronger, more experienced and a few dress sizes bigger 🙂 … but most importantly I stood for every little girl who dares to dream and work hard towards it, for every daughter who wants nothing more than to make her parents proud, for every partner who basis their relationship on love and equality and for every mother who wants to live her dream and wants nothing more than to have her children by her side as she does that." And she mentions further, "sometimes in life even if we don’t have a crown … we all have our sparkle." Dhupia said she has accepted the changes her body went under over the years and feels empowered and beautiful. She also encourages all the women out there to believe in themselves for having their own sparkle.
2. Dhupia joins filming for A Thursday while being pregnant for the second time. Dhupia ">told in an interview with SheThePeople, “Being cast as eight months pregnant, when you are actually eight months pregnant has not happened in the business before.” Bollywood has mostly discriminated against pregnant actors in the name of risk and never liked women who looked in a certain way when they carry a child and after delivery. Dhupia told that she did lose work but she was very confident that these were the fault of the mindset the industry keeps and not her choices. She tried to normalise actors getting pregnant and still working if they want it that way.
3. Dhupia talks about the difference in parenting between and mother and a father and the expectations society keeps from women to be in a certain way when they are mothers. She ">said, "the mom guilt is too tough". She explains how she feels guilty to have a good time herself because she might become an irresponsible mother that way. She mentions how her husband doesn't feel a similar way because society doesn't expect dads to be perfect. Dhupia advises other mums to not care about these expectations because they mostly know what's best for their children.
4. Dhupia flaunts her grey hair with pride. She has had a strand of grey hair since she was a child and she has been calling it her "lucky charm". She made it cool to have grey or white hair and believes it doesn't snatch any amount of beauty from the person. Earlier this year she was seen hosting an award function wearing several grey hair strands as almost a style statement. Being comfortable in your own skin is very important.
5. Dhupia married her husband Angad Bedi while she was pregnant with her daughter Mehr Dhupia Bedi. She was very open about this fact in interviews and attached no shame to it. Dhupia and Bedi talked about it on her radio show and with laughter and anecdotes, they shared the story of how they shared the news of pregnancy with their families and that it wasn't very smooth. She has spoken about this several times and she always suggested that she takes it as a blessing and there is nothing wrong with it.

Suggested Reading: ‘Badhai Ho’ To ‘The Lost Colour’: Revisiting How Neena Gupta Broke Barriers In Indian Cinema

Dhupia has been a very confident and badass woman who always stands up for what is right and doesn't shy away from expressing her opinion on things that matter.