Being Bald In India

What is it like being bald in your 20s? Abhinav Malik tells Brut India it does get hairy sometimes.

Transcript

00:00I've been called Katappa from the Bahubali movies.

00:05I've been, you know, the usual ganja, takla sort of a scene.

00:10My uncle told me that I wouldn't get a US visa because of the way I look.

00:30Of course, you get stairs in the metro, you're walking in the market, but I personally like

00:42to think that it makes me more memorable.

01:07There was a phase in my life, at the very beginning, when I went bald.

01:11When I decided to, you know, shave off all my hair.

01:13There was a phase where I would avoid going out to public places, you know,

01:19for the fear that people would be staring at me unnecessarily.

01:22Or society parties where all these aunties are going to, you know,

01:25they're just for sure going to ask you why you're bald, what are you doing about it.

01:29And then coming up with their homemade recipes and suggestions for growing hair.

01:33I have been to see a few doctors and, you know, I've spoken to them about fixing this problem.

01:46But at that time, the cost was so prohibitive that I was just like, I can live with that.

01:53I mean, I was, I am pretty confident about my look now, I was pretty confident about my look then.

02:03Because people will make fun of anything that's different, you know,

02:19and societies as a rule tend to be drawn towards a certain something that is conventional.

02:29We've grown up seeing bald people as villains.

02:33And obviously, Bolivar affects how the society or the Indian society thinks in a very major way.

02:48I mean, hair is just the top 10% of your body.

02:51What about the rest of the 90% you know?

02:59Yeah.