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When fine art photographer Keerthana Kunnath met a 30-year-old female bodybuilder in Kerala, India, she was struck by both her strength and her grace. Some intensive digging led her to discover a group of women across the state practicing the sport, defying conventional standards of beauty entrenched in Indian society. Kunnath tells writer Ritupriya Basu about her innate interest in stories that challenge gender roles that drew her to the project, and recalls the road trip she took across Kerala to photograph the young bodybuilders creating their own definitions of femininity.
