January 22, 2025

Actor Sai Pallavi has said that she rejected an offer to endorse a fairness cream as she is against the selling of such products. The actor said that our natural colour is the Indian colour and we should be proud of it. She also said that advertising such products has a negative impact on the minds of youngsters.

Pallavi is reported to have said that “This is Indian colour. We can’t go to foreigners and ask them why they’re white, and if they know that they will get cancer because of it. We can’t look at them and think we want that. That’s their skin colour and this is ours. Africans have their own colour too and they are beautiful.”

Pallavi is the latest actor with a conscience to join the anti-fairness brigade. Nandita Das is the most vocal of them while Abhay Deol, Kalki Koelchin, Kangana Ranaut and others have made their opposition known strongly. Nandita Das supports the “Dark is Beautiful” campaign run by Women of Worth which uses slogans such as “Stay Unfair, Stay Beautiful” to tell youngsters that the colour of their skin does not matter. She has said that many times makeup men or women would tell her to lighten her skin tone and there is a lot of prejudice against dark-skinned girls.

Why should the colour of your skin matter at all? We are Indians and we should be proud of our skin colour. To lighten it artificially is to show ourselves as something different than what we actually are and that is cheating. If an Indian girl has a white complexion it is well and good. But if some girls, particularly from West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and the southern states are dark, it does not mean they are not beautiful or less beautiful. Beauty – even physical beauty – is not dependent on the colour of one’s skin.

Media watchdog, The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) - which regulates advertisement in print, radio and TV has issued guidelines to ensure that ads for such products do not discriminate against darker-skinned people when it comes to dating, finding a spouse, securing a job or getting a promotion. But is that enough? After the guidelines were issued, Fair & Handsome, a brand that uses Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the product, changed the line to say that men who want more from life need to be fair, or fairer. How does the colour of your skin get you more in life? Ask Emami, who owns the brand or Shah Rukh Khan, who endorses it.

The government should ban the manufacture of such products as they contain harmful chemicals and youngsters often start using them due to the wrong impression that a fairer skin will make them look better. If that is not possible (tobacco and alcohol products and thin plastic carry bags are still being produced), then at least advertising of such products should be banned immediately. It scars the psyche of youngsters and leaves them unsure about their looks.