Priyanka Chopra talks about colourism in Bollywood and doing fairness cream ads

Actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas spoke about facing colourism and having her skin lightened when appearing in films, in an interview with American podcast host Dax Shepard, on his show Armchair Expert Podcast. In the podcast episode released on March 27, when asked about colourism in the film industry in India when she was starting her career, Priyanka said: “Colourism was so normalised in the industry at that time that we had sponsors [such as] Fair & Lovely. So many of us had done commercials that said, ‘Get fair skin.’”

Calling it a “postcolonial effect”, the actor said that things had started to change with her generation, and through conversations enabled by social media. “It was such a damaging narrative, but it was the end of it when I started,” she said 

“I remember when I joined movies, I was considered ‘dusky’. Yet I did a commercial because, you’re doing a beauty brand, which is a really big part of an actress’ trajectory, and all the beauty brands were selling those [fairness] creams… There’s a massive equity on lighter skin in Asia, they want to aspire for it even now… I really think this is all damaging. Our parents were taught that. If you see matrimonial commercials, they’ll have like, ‘Fair girl required’,” Priyanka said.