Just a few weeks short of Bollywood's 'nepotism' row, an actor's slew of Facebook posts has brought the Indian film industry face to face with the issue of racism. Abhay Deol of 'Dev D' fame was on a roll yesterday as he highlighted several fairness cream ads that popularise and encourage racism and disdain for dark-coloured skin.
While the motive was great, and the message was loud, Deol inadvertently called out several B-town actors in the bid, including his former co-star Sonam Kapoor. He began with actor John Abraham's Garnier men advertisement. Sharing a photo of the actor along with the product he endorses, Deol wrote, “WE ARE NOT A RACIST COUNTRY! I will prove it to you. In the pic below John holds a card with shades from white to dark. Hey! You can see the promise of darker skin too if you read the card from left to right! He's not telling you to go from right to left! Duh! Even if the writing on the tube reads "Intensive FAIRNESS moisturiser". It just means its 'FAIR' to all who use it.”
Next came Sonam, who reportedly clapped back with a photo of Esha Deol, Abhay's cousin, in a fairness promoting ad, which didn't go down well as Deol said his sister was inclusive of the fault too. The slew of posts come at a time when India faces accusations of racism. A few weeks ago, a mob in Greater Noida ganged upon young Nigerian students and assaulted them. This brought to light our country's lowkey aversion to dark skin.
Deol even mentioned actors like Kangana Ranaut, Nandita Das, and Anushka Sharma who have blatantly rejected such products to refrain from promoting fair skin over dusky. In a brief post, he wrote, “There's a lot of these campaigns that are blatantly, and sometimes subtly, selling you the idea that whiter skin is better than darker skin. No one at the top of their game in any field is going to tell you that it is demeaning, false, and racist.”
He added, “You have to see that for yourself. You have to stop buying into the idea that a particular shade is better than others. Unfortunately, if you look at matrimonial ads you will see how entrenched in our psyche this belief is. We even use the word 'dusk' to describe the colour of someone's skin! While an individual may not be able to change this attitude in his/her community, he/she can at least start with the family.”
