Double XL Exclusive: Satramm Ramani spills the beans on being extra conscious about jokes on body image

Huma Qureshi and Sonakshi Sinha’s upcoming Bollywood film Double XL revolves around the struggle of two women who are criticised by society for being plus size. The director of the film Satramm Ramani had to ensure at least one thing – to be sensitive in terms of the jokes. He spoke to OTTplay about being extra conscious about dialogues and jokes that are part of the narrative, since the subject is sensitive and had a potential of hurting the sentiments of people with plus size. 

Satramm said, “Since the film is dealing with a sensitive matter like body image of women especially, and that too, with a dash of humour, we were very conscious of every part of the narrative. So, the presence of Sasha Singh, the screenplay writer of our film, who is working along with Mudassar Aziz was very helpful. Look, it is true that at times we crack some jokes quite casually and as a man, I might not find it offensive but maybe from a female point of view it is; so keeping that check was important. Our film is neither fat-shaming nor encouraging anyone to be thin. All we are trying to say is that the size of your body is not an obstacle to the size of your dream, which is big and sky-high.” 

The film sees the journey of two girls Saira and Rajshri who have dreams to become fashion vlogger and sports presenter on Television. They are, however, constantly criticised and fat-shamed by everyone in their professional world as well as in their family. 

The director also opens up about the plot and reveals that both the characters in the film go through a journey of internal struggle and in the end, they overcome it too. “The struggle that Saira and Rajshri are going through is happening around them. In the film, we are showing how they are dealing with them in their way to achieve their dream. Also, I think the narrative shows a balanced canvas because both our leading ladies - Sonakshi and Huma - in real life went through the same. So it was only natural for us to get the right note from them on the humourous take on the entire matter,” explained Satnamm. 

Double XL also features Zaheer Iqbal, Mahat Raghavendra and cricketer Sikhar Dhawan in a special role. The movie is all set to release theatrically on November 4.