In a landmark move yesterday, one of India’s top fairness cream brands — Fair and Lovely — will finally be dropping the word ‘Fair’ from their name. This came as such a relief for so many who have been fighting against our country’s obsession with equating beauty to ‘fair skin’. Actress Bipasha Basu lauded this move and took to her Instagram to pen a note about how she has been subjected to colorism all her life and how she has learnt to love herself beyond it.
Speaking about it, Bipasha says that since her childhood and teenage years, her complexion was something that would be a point of discussion. Only when she went to New York and Paris for her work she says that she realised her skin colour was considered exotic there, because of which she actually got more work and attention.
Coming to Bollywood, Bipasha says that though she was an outsider, she was accepted and loved after her first film, but the ‘dusky’ adjective stayed. She says that it was believed her skin colour attributed to her ‘sexiness’, which she never really understood. The actress says that to her, “sexy is the personality not just the colour of your skin”.
Speaking about how she dealt with this prejudice, she says:
There was a strong mindset of Beauty and how an actress should look and behave. I was DIFFERENT as it was pointed out. Didn’t really stop me from being and doing all that I loved. Well you see I was confident and proud of who I was from childhood. My skin colour didn’t define me … even though I love it and wouldn’t want it to be any different ever. Many skin care endorsements with loads of money was offered to me in the last 18 years ( some were very tempting)… but I stuck to my principle always.
All this needs to stop. This wrong dream that we are selling … that only fair is lovely and beautiful when the majority of the country is brown skinned. It’s a deep rooted stigma. It’s a mammoth step from the brand… and other brands should follow in the same footsteps soon.
Check out her post:
We love you for being such an inspiration to so many girls out there, Bipasha. More power to you. And we are so glad about this move by the brand!