Bipasha Basu has spent much of her career being associated with fitness, but becoming a mother also exposed her to a different kind of scrutiny. After welcoming daughter Devi with husband and actor Karan Singh Grover, the actress faced harsh trolling over her postpartum weight gain. Now, as she prepares to return to acting after a six-year break, Bipasha has opened up about dealing with online criticism, embracing her age and feeling more comfortable in her body than she did in her twenties.The 47-year-old actor explained that she has learnt to distinguish between the opinions that matter and the noise that does not. Despite the trolling she faced after becoming a mother, Bipasha said she remains confident about her own journey.“I’m an extremely confident person, so no kind of trolling can break me. I know what my journey is, I know what work I need to put in, when I need to put it in, and I will go with that. Outside noise does not really matter. The choice of profession that I have made means my life is open to judgement and criticism at all points of time,” she said in an interview with Elle India.She admitted that learning to shut out unnecessary criticism is something she understood early in her career. With social media making it easier for anyone to comment on celebrities, Bipasha believes having confidence in oneself has become even more important.“Very early in life, I understood what I need to accept and what I need to cut off. There’s a lot of noise, and especially now with social media, everyone can critique you. So it’s very important that you are really confident within yourself, in your life, in your space, and you actually love yourself and like the things that you do. I don’t know if that makes me cool or not, but this is the only way I know.”For Bipasha, the same philosophy extends to ageing. Rather than trying to maintain the appearance of her younger self, the actress said she is comfortable with growing older and, in fact, prefers the person she has become today.“I believe that I like myself more, the person that I am today, much more than what I used to be in my twenties. What other people are doing, it’s their call. I don’t judge that. But for me, I’m never going to fall into the pressure of wanting to look younger than what I am. I’m very happy with the way I am growing older, and I’m very proud of my age,” she expressed.Motherhood, she revealed, has also fundamentally changed the way she sees life. Bipasha said becoming a mother to Devi has given her a fresh perspective and allowed her to find wonder in even the smallest moments.“I’m not the same person I used to be after giving birth to Devi. I think it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever done, or I could have ever done,” she said, adding, “Every day that I live with my daughter, I see the whole world with absolutely fresh eyes. The wonder in her eyes when she does the smallest of things, I’m living off that wonder, and I’m seeing how beautiful life is and how every small thing is so important.”While motherhood became her priority for the past few years, Bipasha now feels ready to return to the profession she loves. With Devi growing older and spending more time at school and with her friends, the actress said she finally has the space to resume work.“I am an actor, and I’m extremely eager to act now. I was not ready for some time because I wanted to give my hundred per cent to my child. But I think she’s in a place where she has longer hours at school, classes, and her own friends. So now I do have a little bit of time where I can step out and do the job that I like doing, which is to act,” she revealed.Bipasha also reflected on her early years in Bollywood, recalling that a muscular physique was not necessarily considered the conventional image of femininity for actresses at the time. She believes her fitness journey helped change that perception while also encouraging women to view health as more important than simply looking good.“I don’t think women with more muscle tone were very acceptable as actresses. But I think I started the trend, and I started preaching ‘love yourself’ to everyone because I realised it’s not just about looking good. It’s more intrinsic. You need to be healthy,” she said.However, despite the changing conversation around fitness and body positivity, Bipasha feels society continues to place unrealistic expectations on women’s bodies, particularly after childbirth. She described the way women are judged for their appearance as ‘bizarre’, pointing out that new mothers are often expected to regain their youthful bodies almost immediately.“The conversation around women’s bodies is quite bizarre even now. Magically, when you give birth, you are supposed to get back into the shape of your twenties even when you are in your forties. What’s expected of a 20-year-old is expected of a 40-year-old. And if you’re not bouncing back, they’re going to troll you. They’re going to be massively brutal,” she shared.The actress also recalled experiencing intense scrutiny herself, particularly from paparazzi photographs that she felt did not reflect the reality of what she was going through as a new mother.“I went through major, major trolling. A few insensitive paps took really bizarre pictures of me. They don’t see how much effort the woman must be putting in, how much they have to do with a baby, with their life, with their lifestyle and also their personal pressures. Nobody really cares. Everybody expects you to bounce back.”On the work front, Bipasha is finally making her acting comeback after a six-year hiatus. She is currently shooting for filmmaker Hansal Mehta’s crime thriller web series ‘Barabanki’, which also stars Sunny Kaushal and Vishal Jethwa in key roles.