More than the shimmer of her gown, it was the utter self-confidence with which Aishwarya Rai Bachchan blew kisses, laughed and even danced a little jig that shone through, telegraphing how little she’s come to care for what people think of her, her body, her clothes and her face.

‘Globally, ageism and sexism are the twin spectres that haunt women in the entertainment industry,’writes Pooja Pillai.

What is not to love about the sight of a woman who is, to repurpose the words of a popular meme (while jettisoning its ironic intent), ‘unbothered, moisturised, happy, in her lane, focused, flourishing’? Yet, the visuals of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,striding down the runway in a shimmering cape gown at the recently concluded Paris Fashion Week, drew out the ageist, sexist, body-shaming trolls that lurk everywhere on social media. Comments referring to her as ‘aunty’ and advising her to dress her age and lose the ‘fillers and botox’ flew thick and fast, forming the predictable haze that seems to surround almost any appearance of a woman celebrity over the age of 40.

But no haze can dim Rai Bachchan’s glow — more than the shimmer of her gown, it was the utter self-confidence with which she blew kisses, laughed and even danced a little jig that shone through, telegraphing how little she’s come to care for what people think of her, her body, her clothes and her face. This is, after all, the woman who shrugged off the brutal body shaming that followed the birth of her daughter in 2011, noting in a 2015 interview, ‘I hope they enjoyed the drama because I was busy leading a very real life with my baby.’

Rai Bachchan’s attitude is inspiring in a culture that worships at the altar of youth (often using it as a synonym for beauty) and is merciless about physical flaws, especially in women. To be sure, there are the odd moments, when it seems like a famous woman is just allowed to be her age, making one wonder if popular attitudes have indeed changed. A case in point is the recent appearance of a bare-faced Kareena Kapoor Khan in Jaane Jaan. Comments about how lovely she looks, ‘even at 43’, and what a ‘brave’ thing it is when a woman in entertainment chooses to look her age seem wonderfully encouraging at first. How perceptive of people to notice that Kareena Kapoor Khan is a human being who ages and how lovely it is that they are not shaming her for it!

One must ask, though: Why comment on this at all? And would we have done it in the case of a male actor? Has anyone, for example, applauded Kapoor Khan’s co-star, Jaideep Ahlawat — who happens to be 43 too — for being brave enough to look his age? It reminds one of the wave of commentary that followed the Golden Globes and Oscars earlier this year, which celebrated the ‘sartorial moment’ presented by older women actors, such as Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, which showed that ‘age is just a number’. That qualifier about age was notably absent from the red-carpet coverage of male actors aged 40 and above, many of whom were also included in several “best dressed” lists.

Globally, ageism and sexism are the twin spectres that haunt women in the entertainment industry. It has long been so and, based on present evidence, will continue to be so for a while yet. What seems to have changed, however, is the attitude of the targets of this noxious combination, from the utter indifference shown by Rai Bachchan and Kapoor Khan to the more combative stance of others, like Madonna who, after being widely trolled — including by Piers Morgan — for looking ‘unrecognisable’ after her plastic surgery, hit back saying that she lives in a world ‘that refuses to celebrate women who pass the age of 45 and feels the need to punish her if she continues to be strong-willed, hard-working and adventurous’.