India, Feb. 16 -- For years, Indian cinema stuck to a rose-tinted, myopic idea of how a film heroine 'ought to' look like. The standards of beauty meant that many talented actresses were never made to believe they fit. And even though the industry has made giant strides in the right direction in the last few years, the current generation of female stars say they have felt that 'otherisation' in their careers. In an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, Mrunal Thakur talks about how the set beauty standards affected her, and why she took a long time to be comfortable with how she looked.

Mrunal is currently awaiting the release of her film, Do Deewane Seher Mein. The romantic drama sees her play Roshni, a girl who battles self-image issues...