WAS it mere decades ago when buxom, curvaceous goddesses like Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi pranced across India's silver screens?

When a dollop of excess flesh was sexy, not fat.

Like her male counterpart, the Indian cinema heroine has gone through a transformation. But there was a small difference: While the hero buffed up, she shrank.

Said movie buff and former film critic Dr R. Akhileswaran: "I think it has always been said that Indians preferred their heroines to be a bit on the plump side."

Hence Hema Malini, Mumtaz, Jayalalithaa - in her pre-politics days - and Sri Devi, whose thunder thighs were the highlights of the 1980s, were screen goddesses of their time.

What were a few kilos of flab when they had talent?

Dr Akhileswaran pointed out that one of the reasons these actresses weren't big on fitness could be the saris they wore. When you are swaddled beneath six metres of silk or chiffon, you can hide a few bulges.

"Those were times where their bodies were hidden in a sari or a dress and the camera concentrated more on their faces," he said.

The tide turned from flab to fit with the rise of the Indian sex symbol: It started with Sharmila Tagore in a two-piece swimsuit in 1967's An Evening In Paris.

That paved the way for the late Parveen Babi, Zeenat Aman and Dimple Kapadia to sizzle in the 1970s and 1980s in films like Yeh Nazdekiyan, Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Bobby respectively.

Coupled with the slew of models and beauty queens who turned to Bollywood in the 1990s and early noughties - Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif - the heroine shrank even further.

Fast-forward to 2008 where Kareena Kapoor's new size zero frame sent Mumbai's glitterati into a fitness tizzy.

The 29-year-old actress, who was once described in the media as having chunky thighs, shrank from 60kg to 48kg in eight months... all for a Vogue India cover shoot and the skimpy costumes she had to slip into for her film Tashan.

The movie demanded a "lean, mean look", said Kareena. She had to pour herself into a pair of tight hot pants and a tiny yellow-green bikini for a song-and-dance scene.

Kareena denied that she went on a crash diet, and said it was all due to power yoga and a special vegetarian diet.

"It is not that I survived on juices to lose weight; I ate everything in moderation and exercised properly to lose weight. I eat everything, even my favourite Chinese food and dal makhani, but in moderation," she told Bollywood News Service.

She added, in an interview with The Hindustan Times: "I had to get this look for Tashan because the film-makers wanted me to get into character. I'm proud of my sculpted body. Why should I want to be like anyone else?"

Her new look had all of Bollywood gushing about the slimmer Kareena.

Mumbai advertising guru Prahlad Kakkar told The Hindustan Times that Kareena was more attractive and "now looks like a woman". "She doesn't need to put on weight, or else she will again look motu (fat)," he said.

The enthusiastic praise for Kareena's new figure sent other Bollywood actresses running to the treadmills, hiring personal trainers and yoga instructors.

Mumbai-based movie critic Amod Mehra told tabla! the change in body shape is also due to the kind of roles these actresses are taking on.

"The roles are sexier, and naturally so are the costumes. And the leading ladies have to be action stars - learn martial arts and do their own stunts," he said.

And as with the heroes, this fitness craze has a spillover effect in the south, where generous and voluptuous figures have always been welcome in Tamil cinema.

Stars like Asin, Trisha Krishnan and Nayanthara are losing poundage due to pressure from actresses from the north like Shreya Saran (right) who headed south to find fame.

Said Nayanthara in an interview with an online Chennai magazine: "I sweat it out to remain slim and look good.

"I have to look beautiful, slim and trim as many youngsters look to actresses like us as their role models."

Mr Taran Adarsh, a Mumbai-based film critic who has his own talk show B Biz, believes that the increasingly toned physiques are a reflection of the changing outlook of society. "There's a great deal of image consciousness among people. The screen reflects that.

Also, the pace of cinegoers has changed, and cinema has evolved to cater to that changed sensibility," he said.