Pakistani actor Ali Zafar defends Katrina Kaif after post-pregnancy trolling, urges men to 'correct themselves'

Katrina Kaif welcomed her son Vihaan with husband Vicky Kaushal last November, and since then, she's mostly kept a low profile. So when she stepped out with Vicky for the Ambanis' Ganpati celebration recently, it caused much public discussion on social media.

Within hours, social media had turned into a courtroom, with users dissecting her appearance, saying she was 'finished' and stacked up before-and-after pregnancy photos.

Now her Mere Brother Ki Dulhan co-star Ali Zafar has stepped in to defend her.

In a video that's since gone viral, the Pakistani actor-singer called it out directly, noting that this isn't a new pattern for him. He has pushed back before, including when his own compatriots, actors like Mahira Khan, were on the receiving end of similar body-shaming.

Ali turned the mirror on men specifically, suggesting that a lot of this criticism stems from an unspoken entitlement: the idea that women's bodies, choices, and lives are somehow up for public grading.

He added, "We all need to look within ourselves. Especially as a man, if I am speaking about this, I think it is very important for us to look within ourselves and make the necessary corrections. We have all made mistakes in life; no one is perfect. But it is important to recognise those mistakes and correct them. But if we talk man to man, the privilege we assume comes with being a man, and the way we perceive a woman, her body, the way she thinks and the way she lives, if she does not fit the standards that we have created, we immediately put that woman down."

Ali also said, "This is wrong; this is not the right way to look at things. Every person is going through their own struggles, and we do not know what someone else might be dealing with. So, we should be kind to people, compassionate, understanding, accepting and appreciative. If you study the renaissance, in the earlier era, concepts about women's bodies were different. Then came a time when women were expected to have a zero figure, and even towards men, the expectations about six-pack abs are not realistic. They are not healthy. It's not healthy to always criticise other people. They are all human beings and we have the potential to be nice to each other."