Bollywood celebrities have often rejected offers to endorse fairness creams and have openly voiced their disrespect for the same. George Floyd’s death caused a global movement against racism and yesterday a mainstream fairness cream brand decided to drop the word ‘fair’ from its product's name. This move was lauded by several B-town stars. While Bipasha Basu penned a powerful note about being termed as 'dusky' at every step in her life, Abhay Deol tagged this as a beautiful beginning and Nandita Das and Kangana Ranaut called it a 'big step'.
Talking to a leading daily, Nandita, who has been the face of Dark Is Beautiful campaign for many years said, “In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of social wrongs have found a surprisingly sympathetic audience. The announcement today by Hindustan Unilever that they will remove the words ‘fairness’, ‘whitening and ‘lightening’ from their line of products, is something I don’t think anyone saw coming. Even though it is more symbolic (after all they have not discontinued the product, just changed the messaging), it is still a big step forward. Many brands spend hundreds of crores of rupees to spread the absurd message of fair being lovely in a largely dark country. So, when a market leader steps in, at the very least, it will certainly lead to an even wider debate.”
”The world is ridden with so many forms of discrimination - on the basis of religion, caste, gender, sexuality, language and, of course, skin colour. A given identity, that one is born with, has become the most defining factor. But increasingly, it is being challenged, and thankfully, cannot be ignored.”
“Many female actors were becoming lighter and lighter with every film! Being a dark person, you are always being told about it. Initially all articles about me would start with - dark and dusky. Thankfully, my parents never put any complex in me. When I speak at colleges, young girls ask me ‘how come you are so confident despite being dark?’ because we link the colour of our skin to our self esteem and confidence. When I supported this campaign, I didn’t think I was going to become the face of it," she added.
Revealing how she was often referred to as a dusky beauty and that she had rejected all fairness care endorsements, Bipasha shared, “From the time I was growing up I heard this always, “Bonnie is darker than Soni. She is little dusky na?” Even though my mother is a dusky beauty and I look a lot like her. I never knew why that would be a discussion by distant relatives when I was a kid. 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.”
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Abhay also reacted to the move and shared, “It took a world backlash and the #blacklivesmatter movement to give us a push in this direction. But make no mistake, all of you who have been vocal about the need for a cultural shift in regard to the sale and endorsement of fairness creams in our country contributed to this victory. We have a long way to go in breaking our conditioning of what constitutes for beauty, but this is a small step in the right direction. It’s the starting point to a long road ahead. What a beautiful beginning!"
Kangana, who had once stated that she never understood the concept of fairness, shared through her team’s Twitter handle, “It has been a long and sometimes a very lonely battle but results only happen when whole nation participates in the movement.” The actress had reportedly turned down an offer worth Rs. 2 crore to become the face of a skin-lightening product and had stated that she has no regrets about the same.
It has been a long and sometimes a very lonely battle but results only happen when whole nation participates in the movement https://t.co/9xv1nkQm5P
— Team Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) June 25, 2020
