Chhavi Mittal calls out people overusing filters: You are lying to yourself and that’s worse than lying to others

Actor Chhavi Mittal, through her social media, has often expressed her strong opinions on everyday issues and ideologies. Her latest post takes a dig at the overuse of ‘beauty filters’ by people. The actor shared an unfiltered picture of her from the gym, that showed her real skin, and she talked about how by clicking everything will filters, people are creating disappointment for themselves.

“Nowadays, whenever people click pictures, I see them using Instagram filters. And sometimes, they (filters) don’t even make you look good. They just make you look like a different person,” says Mittal, adding, “But when I try telling people to not take my picture with a filter, they don’t appreciate it. And that’s weird. Because what’s the purpose of these pictures then. After two years, when you’ll turn back to look at the memories and feel those emotions once again, you won’t be able to. That’s because you’ve forgotten to actually document your age graph completely in pictures. For me that idea of taking pictures gets completely defeated in a filter.”

The actor doesn’t hesitate in calling this whole obsession with filters “very shallow”. She elaborates, “There’s no message that you want to convey. There’s no real feeling that you want to share. Why are we sharing? Why are we putting posts on Instagram? And what are we sharing? If it’s not real? Why are we doing it? Just these thoughts bother me a lot.”

Mittal further points how the trend of using filters is also leaving a wrong impression on the young minds, who then run behind the idea of perfection, which in reality doesn’t exist.

“I’m 42 and very secure in life. But you think about teenagers who’re consuming the maximum content online… they look at these girls and boys and fail to understand that fact that the beauty lies in the imperfections and one needs to learn to embrace it,” asserts Mittal, a mother of two.

Citing her own example, she adds, “I do not have the best eyelashes, but I love them. I think my eyes look really small because of that, but I find them cute and pretty and expressive. I love that about my life. I believe if you don’t feel good about yourself when you look in the mirror, then what’s the point in feeling good about using a filter. Then you’re just hiding your own emotions from yourself and lying to yourself. It’s worse than lying to others. You have to love yourself the way you are and understand that everybody ages and that it’s okay to be imperfect.”

While Mittal says there was no particular age or period when she learnt to love herself, she thanks the generation she belongs to. “At that time, we didn’t have any social media. We never really thought about who’s better than us, other than whoever was in the immediate circle, which is very small or large canopy. But with social media, this whole concept has changed. You can compare yourself to anybody. So, I never had that insecurity growing up about whether I’m perfect or not perfect. I’ve always looked at myself and thought I’m looking nice,” she wraps up.