Priyanka Chopra expresses regret on being part of 'damaging fairness cream' commercials

Priyanka Chopra has opened up about the discrimination dark-skinned girls face in Bollywood. She shared that at the beginning of her career, her skin was lightened on screen. Priyanka also expressed remorse for endorsing fairness creams. In a conversation with Dax Shepard on his The Armchair Expert podcast, Priyanka confessed that when she started out in Bollywood, fairer girls were "guaranteed some sort of success or casting." She mentioned that darker girls were lightened up in movies. The actress revealed that filmmakers used extra makeup and lighting to make her fit the industry's beauty standards. 

Talking about unrealistic beauty standards, the Fashion actress spoke about the fairness cream ads in the 2000s. She revealed, “Even I got caught up into it and I look back on that, the commercial was so damaging.” Priyanka recalled a commercial in which she was portrayed as a dark-skinned girl who fails to get the attention of the male actor featured in it. However, as soon as she applies the fairness cream, she succeeds in getting attention and even a good job. 

Priyanka Chopra colourism comment

This is not the first time Priyanka has opened up about the hypocritic beauty practices in show business. A few weeks ago, she shared that someone commented on her body size saying that she is not “sample-sized”. The comment was made during a fitting session when she did not fit in a pre-designed dress for a smaller size person. Priyanka added that she finds it “problematic.” Priyanka also shared that the comment upset her and she cried about it to her husband and her team. 

Priyanka Chopra on her Bollywood exit 

In the same interview with Dax Shepard, Priyanka also made other eyebrow-raising confessions. The Dil Dhadakne Do actress revealed that she was ‘pushed to a corner’ in the Hindi film industry and was not getting along with people. She added that she did not want to get into ‘film politics’ and so she made a quick exit from Bollywood to try her luck in the West.