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Does Indian Cinema glorify fair skin ?
Hey guys.. I'm new on pinkvilla.. But I thought I'd address this issue.. I watch lot of Bollywood and Tamil movies, and I've found racism to be very prevelant, esp in south movies.. Some of You watching south movies might've noticed that the movies themselves promote low self esteem with really vicious dialogues on racism.. --For example, I was watching the Rajnikanth starrer SIVAJI a few weeks back(I'm a big Rajni fan), but I was shell shocked when there is a whole song dedicated to him not being pleased with dark skin and bleaching and turning it fair.. In fact there is a very racist scene where two very dark girls come as suitors for him, but he says 'No thanks!'.. --There was one more Tamil movie where the heroine is fair skinned, and the song's lyrics glorify that.. The lyrics go like 'Unna veyilukku kaataama valarthaangala', roughly translated as 'Have you been brought up never being exposed to sunlight?' --I was shocked to read an interview on South actress Tamanna Bhatia where she proudly claimed that she is very proud of her pale skin and in South movies they like their heroines 'Fair and lovely!'.. Now what was that???! --In most movies they glorify pale skin and spurn dark skin with corny dialogues like 'coloura iruka!', meaning 'Shes very fair!'.. These are only few instances.. I have nothing against pale skin or anything but it has become a major issue across the nation.. No one has ever embraced their own skin tone due to low self esteem, as shown in movies.. Movies play a very important role in changing the society.. People look up to celebs as role models but in the above mentioned cases how would the outlook ever change? Please share your views on this!
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Very true and a very debatable topic as movie stars who claim themselves as very modern and educated personalities are themselves so much backword in their thinking. As we all know that media plays a great role in making the psychology of viewers than also if these kind os racism is going so openly then yes the people believing in their role models should definitely think twice.
yeh the song chikni chameli is a perfect example
India is the most racist country, when it comes to dark skin colour !! Ask any dark skin girl and her parents who are searching for a groom for their daughter !!
Well , duh! Is the pope catholic? Does a bear sh!t in the woods? Is water wet?
Were you born yesterday or something?
Well im an American white girl and im a model. I can honestly tell you white men prefer dark skin. I have to tan to be considered attractive to most whites. So send me your indian men and i will give you my americans. People dont appreciate what they have and they always want something different
I hate being white. What about the USA starting to prefer dark skin. Since people here are no longer racist white men are starting to show theyre true colors. White guys like darker skinned girls for the most part. So all you indian girls that are sick of men always wanting something different... come get am american cause ive about had it with all of them. While your at it hook me up with indian man
AISHWARYA is lucky (in that case) to be naturally fair! Also her grey-green eyes made a boom in this country!
She is fair since she was a baby, in Miss World she looked fair-weatish and that's actually her color skin.
this topic is so boooooring! how many times same thing month after month?
Why just Indian cinema, the whole world does.
in india in real life there is much more skin colour based racism than on sceen
in canada all my guy friends do find girls like malaika arora and bipasha sexy but their opinion is they would only fool around with a brown skinned girl and would prefer a katrina kaif or aishwarya type to marry. i even have one guy friend who says he doesnt even find katrina that pretty but he says she is the type to take home and introduce to your parents.
yes it does.
For those who don't know, it's not just indians, a lot of cultures place a lot of importance on fair skin. Clinique sells products in Asia differently than they do in Europe/America.
This beauty, skin color BS is prevalent in all cultures. Why point a finger at Indians only? Get over it or get with it b'coz these kind of things are not going to change.
Finally, many times when they talk about fair skin in all those tamil songs, they are referring to the overall beauty than the skin color only.
Wed, 2011-11-02 13:57 — Anonymous
I am dusky or brown as you say and my husband is really fair.He said he always wanted a dusky girl with long hair and pretty face.But he said real black is no no.His family some times talks abt it
But at the same time though there are some men who like it, thinking of the offspring such a union would produce makes them hesitant.Even some mothers dont let thier sons marry darker girls saying "arrey meri potha pothi kaale ho jaayenge"Sometimes women are women's enemy as they say.lol
Media is a reflection of our society. Yes there s a preference for fair skin people.Yet we have actresses like Smita Patil,Shahana Goswami,Chitrangada Singh,Kajol,Rani,Konkona sen etc. And even in south india inspite of all that you are saying I feel Tamil industry is only movie industry in India that casts ordinary looking dark skinned ppl as main characters. Somehow in India fair skin is also associated with upper caste ,though there are exceptions on both sides.
And again India is not the only country which has this syndrome.In countries like Pakistan,Philippines, South American countries etc also people favour fair skin and their media also projects the mixed breed or fair breed and sideline the ordinary ones.It is there everywhere.We are a bigger market,bigger nation,thickly populated -hence our flaws also look larger!!! And the system of arrange marriage adds to this phenomenon.Besan lagao,haldi lagao and all that rubbish will add to the complex and prejudice of a person.
I have a slight disagreement on the Rajnikanth movie you are referring to,cos that scene comes when the herione rejects him and he asks the reason. Since she doesnt want to say that a pandit had told he wouldnt live longer,she lies to him that she doesnt like him cos of his DARK SKIN.Thats when the funny song starts where he tries all tricks to lighten his skin.But she eventually tells him that he likes him the way he is. So wheres the question of racism or colorism.
The problem has deep roots in Indian society, it's true, but I think nowadays, the media is making a huge difference. If they stopped filming Bollywood movies with white lighting, use makeup 4 shades lighter on the actors, if they stopped Photoshopping actors on the magazine covers to make them appear lighter, things would slowly take a turn for the better.
As long as people are bombarded with messages that say lighter is better, nothing will change, people will conform to the generally accepted standards of beauty.
I must confess that I had no idea this issue existed in India. After college I moved to a different country in Europe and started getting in touch with Indian culture and having Indian friends.
It was shocking for me to know Indians prefer white skin so much, especially since in my country of origin, people are unhealthily obsessed with tanning. You know the Snooky-out-from-the-oven look? Like that lol.
I personally, love variation. I would hate to see only white or only brown or only black ppl around.
Beautiful skin is a healthy, glowing skin, indifferent of color.
If you can seriously tell me this girl is not gorgeous cos she's black, there is something very wrong with you:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jmlFdeLmWJw/TBw9VqjrTcI/AAAAAAAALsE/yJ8Ai-sHpMQ/s1600/Selita+Ebanks+.jpeg
Anonymous's :
very true, it's not only in south movies it's in bollywood aswell, but it's now changing as rani and kajol are known to be top actresses and girls like priyanka and bipasha were always known to be hot.
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These women are only dark compared to other Bollywood actresses, who are not representative for the majority of Indians.
Wed, 2011-11-02 20:41 — Anonymous
This isn't racism, this is colorism, since you are taking about light skinned and dark skinned people, not different races. Unless you are also including tribal/ethnic differences, i.e punjabi vs marathi vs gujurathi, etc. I hate when people talk about racism and they don't know what racism really is. Racism is not within a race, but between and/or among races.///////////////////
Racism is defined as "belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this (racism), antagonism towards other races". This definition of racism is correct in its content but incorrect in terms of the word being defined. Humans are one species or one race, an accurate definition of racism among humans would read, "belief in the superiority of a particular group, antagonism towards other groups." this is an example of intra-species prejudice wherein one group feels superior to another group within the same species.
true...and also in bollywood there are non hindi speaking actors who are given preferences over a desi girl....tan skin actors....and why is that we only see a western girl in a main role if though cannot speak hindi and not a western man actor.
come on india you can do better with so many indian girls waiting to be discovered and given a chance of fame and fortune......
and i think some indian man like fair skin girls i know some indian man immigrated to western countries and want to hook up with a non indian girl...meaning fair skin.
I have a dark skinned daughter and a lighter skinned daughter. I make sure the ligghter one is treated like a princess. the darker one I shout at alot. I was so mad she was born dark
Hey anon 20.41: yes, thanks for pointing out my mistake, its colourism..
The sad reality I see is that it is more prevalent in south indian movies..it is way better in bollywood where bips, pc and all shine.. That's the main reason I wrote some of the dialogues as an example..
This isn't racism, this is colorism, since you are taking about light skinned and dark skinned people, not different races. Unless you are also including tribal/ethnic differences, i.e punjabi vs marathi vs gujurathi, etc. I hate when people talk about racism and they don't know what racism really is. Racism is not within a race, but between and/or among races.
am i the only one who is tired of this argument?!?!!? we talk about this like every month on pinkvilla and it is getting sickening
Is this even a question? Of course it does.
It is archaic notion, steeped in racism and classism. And there is notihng 'factual' in white skin being inherently attractive. Our perception of beauty standards are made by the dominate Western cultural, and if we are sheep, we allow it to dictate our mind set.
Well it really irritates me how light skin is preferred over dark skin. However, I do think that Bollywood has been kind to some of our dark skinned actors - Rekha, Kajol, Rani, Priyanka, and Bipasha. Except for Bipasha, all the other ladies have been top actresses at some point; but Bips has received acclaim for her roles as well.
The light skin preference has and always will be part of the Indian culture. Unfortunately :(
very true, it's not only in south movies it's in bollywood aswell, but it's now changing as rani and kajol are known to be top actresses and girls like priyanka and bipasha were always known to be hot.
"White people are more pleaseing to look at - FACT. Brown is also still somewhat ok. But complete BLACK is a big no no."
Yea that's an opinion and pretty racist. Pretty people come in all skin tones. Even in the modeling world you see all skin tones albeit more white blondes are present.
Fair skin is sought after everywhere in India . There are so many Hindi songs with word " Gori" in it to praise the beauty of the heroine.
However I have seen Asian ( chinese , japanese etc) more into protecting their skin from sun. For all the hype about fair skin Indians dont go crazy over covering their faces during day time in sunlight.
Here in US i see lot of asian women wear ridiculously large hats with extended face protection to keep the sun from reaching their face. I am not sure whether it is because they will get tanned or their face will develop wrinkles due to sun exposure.
Yes, sadly there is very little awareness of this problem in India. Things will get a lot worse before people start noticing/