Priyanka Chopra's Mom Reveals She Was 'Berated' For Her Wheatish Complexion: It Stuck With Her

Priyanka Chopra grabbed the headlines last year when she revealed that her skin was "lightened" in many Bollywood films and was called the "dusky actress". Now, addressing the actress' skin tone, her mother Madhu Chopra shared why the actress must not have felt beautiful even after winning Miss World. She revealed that when PeeCee was young people used to berate her skin colour.

Madhu Chopra opens up about Priyanka Chopra being criticised for her skin tone

Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Priyanka's mother said that the Chopra family is generally fair-skinned except for her father and the actress went on him in terms of skin tone. "Priyanka was not all that bad, she was very good-looking, dhani gehua (wheatish) complexion" but there were some people who used to berate her and she couldn't forget those comments. "I believe that Priyanka may have experienced childhood trauma due to past events," she added.

Madhu Chopra continued that despite her colour tone Priyanka was always a stunner. She recalled an event and said, "I remember seeing her for the first time in America when she was 15-year-old, and she was unrecognisable from when she was 12-year-old with long, slim hair. When she came to the airport to pick me up, I didn't recognise her at first. Despite everything, she has always been a stunning person. Yeh reh gaya hoga uske zehan mai tabhi kehti hai."

When Priyanka Chopra opened up about how colourism impacted her professional endeavours

In a detailed chat with actor-filmmaker Dax Shepard, the actress discusses how “colourism was normalised” in the industry. In particular, she spoke about her appearance in films and advertisements for fairness creams. She said, "I remember when I joined movies, I was considered dusky, written as the dusky actress and I was like ‘What is dusky? What does it mean?'. Yet, I did a commercial because you are doing a beauty brand. A beauty brand is a really big part of an actress' trajectory."

Speaking about the impact of beauty advertisements, the 41-year-old actress continued, “The commercial was so damaging. I am a darker-skinned girl and this guy comes in and I'm selling flowers and he comes in and he doesn't even look at me. I start using this cream and I get a job, I get the guy, all my dreams come true and it was like the mid-2000s.” Priyanka also added that when she joined films, actresses with lighter skin tones had an advantage.