Bipasha Basu traces 'fairness stigma' back to childhood, lauds 'Fair & Lovely' rebranding

Bipasha Basu, who hails from West Bengal, spoke about her journey with the deep-rooted stigma attached to 'duskiness' as fairness products defined the notions of beauty. She wrote a powerful note on Instagram praising Hindustan Unilever for rebranding their long-standing product by removing the word 'Fair' to create a more inclusive product for the Indian market. The Bachna Ae Haseeno actor detailed her journey from a 'dusky' child to a 'dusky' actor and recalled how the colour of her skin was always used to describe her.

She wrote, "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. Soon at 15/ 16 I started modelling and then I won the supermodel contest ... all newspapers read ... dusky girl from Kolkata is the winner. I wondered again why Dusky is my first adjective???"

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Bipasha Basu also recalled the beginning of her career in Bollywood and shared how the label of being 'dusky' followed her everywhere. She wrote, "Then I went to New York and Paris to work as a model and I realised my skin colour was exotic there and I got more work and attention because of it. Another discovery of mine:) Once I came back into India and film offers started... and finally, I did my first film and from an absolute Ajnabee to Hindi film industry ...I suddenly was accepted and loved. But the adjective stayed which I started liking and loving by then. DUSKY girl wows the audiences in her debut film."

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She added, "In most of my articles for all the work I did, my duskiness seemed to be the main discussion.. it attributed to my sex appeal apparently. And sexy in Bollywood started getting accepted widely. I never really understood this... To me, sexy is the personality not just the colour of your skin...why my skin colour only sets me apart from the conventional actresses at that time. But that’s the way it was. I didn’t really see much of difference but I guess people did. 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."

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Bipasha Basu then said that through her almost two-decade career, she has been offered various endorsements for skincare products, but she always stuck to her principles. She concluded, "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 skincare 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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