HYDERABAD: We have heard about body positivity for women, and it has shown good some results. Thanks to the movement, we now have not just perfect hourglass Caucasian models but also brown, plus size, skinny, short and petite women making the cut. Sadly, the same cannot be said for male models, for the fashion and TV industries in the city still prefer that ‘ideal’ hunk of a man.
“If you close your eyes and imagine a man, you’d see broad shoulders, a V-physique narrowing down to the torso and a strong jawline. To attain this body type, male models spend hours at the gym and put themselves through rigorous diets,” says Yawar Ahmed, a model who is now acts in a TV soap. “Casting directors are obsessed with ‘ideal’ figures for lead characters.
For them, any man who is fat, can only play a side role, a dumb friend or the son of a rich dad. Anyone skinny and short has to play a poor man. When it comes to models, there is no choice but match up to the ‘ideal’ figure,” he says. In the fashion industry, for men physique defines value.
Most of the designers in the city are only focused on making clothes that fit the so-called ideal body shapes. If a man is bald but has the physique, he still is out of the race. Even global brands, which have their stores in Hyderabad, sell apparel for the Caucasian physique. Brown Indian men do not make it to the posters. “There are very few stores that put up clothing displays for men who do not fall under the ‘muscular’ category,” says Mehul Pathak, who designs and supplies textiles for ethnic men’s wear stores.