At The Lakme Fashion Week, Kareena Kapoor Shows That Motherhood And Career Are Not Mutually Exclusive

A month and a half after giving birth to her son Taimur, Kareena Kapoor Khan returned to the ramp yesterday as the showstopper for designer Anita Dongre in the grand finale of the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2017. Dressed in an off-white gown and gold jacket, Kapoor was sending out an important message about motherhood not being a deterrent to work.

"There are certain mindsets that you should be hiding away till you are in your best shape. But the fact that I am continuing to work should hopefully inspire a lot of girls that they can balance marriage, motherhood and work," Kapoor told The Indian Express. "It is okay if I am not size zero but as long as I am looking great and I think I am."

Not until too long ago, marriage and motherhood were considered to signal the end of an actress' career. While their male



co-actors continued to play the leads, actresses were often relegated to minor roles after they got married and became mothers. Back in 2011, news of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's pregnancy was accompanied with reports of director Madhur Bhandarkar being "upset" and shelving a film project that he was supposed to do with her over fears that she would look "overweight" and "unglamorous."

In contrast, Kapoor has been a vocal critic of speculations over the impact of motherhood on her career, changing the way pregnant Bollywood actresses have been viewed. "I'm pregnant, not a corpse. And what maternity break? It's the most normal thing on earth to produce a child," she said last July. Later in the year, she made headlines when she walked the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2016 for designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee while she was pregnant.