Actress Huma Qureshi is hosting a fitness and diet show, and has naturally opened up on the subjects of food, fitness and body image. She feels the general thought process about how actresses look in front of the camera must change.

"If you are curvy, you are told you should be skinny, if you are skinny you are told to gain a certain size and shape of your body. If you have a dark complexion you are made to feel rejected. If you have a fair complexion, you are told 'your skin is too fair for this role'. I think that is the thought process we have to change," Huma told IANS.

"Whether it is beauty standard or any choice we make in life, (the mindset that dominates is) that whatever you are is not good enough and you should become someone else. That is how the whole sense of dissatisfaction in whatever you have is 'not enough' starts," she continued.

"But who are 'they' to tell you what you should have? Society can make you feel like a failure but before you get them affected, think about it -- a fish is not supposed to climb the tree and a monkey is not supposed to swim. We have an option of feeling like the fish who is unable to climb the tree, or we could look within us and find out what we could be best at," she declared.

Huma is hosting a lifestyle show "Fit Fab Feast", in which she interacts with yoga experts, chefs, nutritionists, celebrity trainers, and fashion designers among others, and also shares fun moments with them.

She also opened up about changes that lockdown brought forth. "I think 2020 transformed all of us. The fitness and lively image that is visible on screen is a result of internal change that happened to me. I learnt to be nicer and kinder to myself and also to people around me!" answered the actress.

"I am one of those women who are navigating their space in the industry, playing strong roles, who are self-made, independent and embracing themselves," Huma signed off.

"Fit Fab Feast" airs on Zee Zest.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)