It is nothing new to know that the Indian film industry has always been biased. Be it in choosing actors/actresses or their skin tones. From always portraying a beautiful life for the fair toned person and a struggling life for the ones with darker skin tones, it is quite evident that directors and producers prefer actresses with a fair skin tone.
‘Fair and Lovely’ had various brand ambassadors, all promoting fair skin tone. If such influencers don’t realise the importance of equality, then how can we expect the audience to do so?
Esha revealed, “I remember, initially, when I came, there were some actors who I’ve not even worked with… But they met me and said, ‘Tu apna makeup thoda kaala karti hai, gora kiya kar (Your makeup is very dark, you should make it fairer)’, and I was like, ‘Dude, what?’”
Actress Esha Gupta has surely been a victim of this bias. Now, she has opened up about how she faced humiliation and how brutal it was when she was advised to not do ‘kaala’ makeup when she was a newbie in Bollywood.
She further added, “There were also makeup artists who’d try to make me fair always, and then they had to paint my whole body because my body doesn’t match my face. So suddenly I’m looking like a clown. I’ve done two multi-starrers, and they told me, ‘You’re the sexy one’, because black, the skin tone that I have, which is considered black in our country, that can only be sexy or negative, and fair skin has to be the girl next door and sharif (honest).”
She has been strong enough to go through all of this and still be one of the famous actresses of Bollywood. Now that she speaks about it, it must trigger all of us and we must start supporting all actresses based on their actings and skills instead of their colour.
She said that she hopes things change soon. Her film debut was with actor Emraan Hashmi in the movie Jannat 2. The two multi-starrers about which she made a reference could possibly be Humshakals and Total Dhamaal. Her next project is with actors Mallika Sherawat and Gautam Rode in the thriller series Nakaab, about the death of a TV actor. Nakaab is directed by Soumik Sen.
While anyone in India who has a darker skin tone must have faced bias sometime or the other in their life, our country lags way behind other countries because of such discriminations. We need to see more about a person than their caste and colour.
