Priyanka Chopra Regrets Promoting Fairness Cream: 'Let's Embrace Our Skin And Body'

When speaking to Dax Shephard on the podcast Armchair Expert, actress Priyanka Chopra expressed regret over starring in "damaging" fairness cream advertisements. Following her win at the Miss World Pageant in 2000, Chopra made her acting debut in 2002. During her early years in the film industry, the Citadel actor revealed that she faced colourism. She expressed remorse over acting in a fairness cream TV commercial in the mid-2000s.

It was an advertisement ">series that gave out the wrong message that only fair women would have a promising future. The ad shows a dusky-skinned Priyanka Chopra selling flowers. A guy enters, and he doesn’t even look at her. She starts using the cream, which makes her skin fairer; she lands a better job; she gets the guy; and all her dreams come true.

Priyanka Chopra Regrets Fairness Ad

Chopra spoke about how the film industry was obsessed with fair-skinned women when she joined the industry. She revealed how she was "lightened up in many movies" because the industry thought her complexion wasn’t fair enough to fit the beauty standards. She shared how they used makeup and lighting to make her look fairer than she was on screen.

"We were taught that damaging bullsh*t, and even I got caught up to it that I endorsed a fairness cream," said the Citadel actor. Chopra credited her generation for speaking out about the harmful stereotypes of discrimination in Indian society. She also admitted that the narrative began to change a while after she joined the industry, and especially after the introduction of social media.

The actor pointed out that equating beauty with fair skin is a cultural thing that Indians are taught about from a young age, which is a fact. The obsession with fair skin, especially in women, seems to be a never-ending one among Indians. The craze is so deeply embedded in society that YouTube has videos of home remedies for skin lightening for infants!

Like Prinyanka Chopra said, we’ve been taught that fair skin is beautiful and dusky skin is ugly. A preschooler's textbook differentiates between beautiful and ugly by identifying a fair woman as beautiful and a dusky woman as ugly. Doesn’t the system realise that they are not teaching opposite words to children but ingraining colour-based discrimination?

The media and film industry portrays all female actors as having fair skin, setting a beauty standard in society. The hero can be dusky "kyunki woh ek mard hai" but the heroine, even if she plays a very insignificant role and barely has screen time, has to be fair "kyunki woh ek aurat hai." Wanting female actors or any women to be fair and fit into beauty standards is basically objectifying them. Sadly, many of us unknowingly objectify ourselves and the people around us.

It is appreciable when actors like Priyanka Chopra express their regret for endorsing a fairness cream that promotes colourism in society. Mid-2000s was a time when we weren't woke enough to address the issue but now that we are, it's only fair that we change our mindset. Many actors have rejected offers to star in fairness cream commercials, including Sai Pallavi, Kangana Ranaut, Taapsee Pannu, Anushka Sharma, Kalki Koechlin, and Nandita Das. They have publicly expressed that these creams have harmful effects and set unrealistic beauty standards in society. Considering the impact that celebrities have on the public, it's appreciable that they are taking responsibility to promote body positivity.

More actors embracing their natural skin and bodies helps promote body positivity in society. It changes the narrative that only fair means beautiful, and only fair women achieve it all. Although we still see actors with "perfect" looks, more people are aware that it's due to makeup and lighting. Like Priyanka Chopra said, we millennials are the generation that’s changing the narrative. It’s up to us to normalise the fact that beauty comes in all colours, shapes, and sizes.

Suggested Reading: You Can Drop The Fair, But Can You Stop The Obsession With Being “Lovely”?