The debate around Bollywood’s obsessions with fair skin has been addressed by numerous celebrities such as Nandita Das and Abhay Deol. There is a lot of pressure on actors who are not conventionally good looking or fair. This was further reiterated when a casting director recently said that one cannot cast a fair, good looking actress opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui because “it would look weird”.
The debate around Bollywood’s obsessions with fair skin has been addressed by numerous celebrities such as Nandita Das and Abhay Deol. There is a lot of pressure on actors who are not conventionally good looking or fair. This was further reiterated when a casting director recently said that one cannot cast a fair, good looking actress opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui because “it would look weird”. Siddiqui took to twitter to respond to this observation. “Thank you for making me realise that I cannot be paired along with the fair and handsome because I’m dark and not good looking, but I never focus on that,” he tweeted. The statement is in sharp contrast to what he had said in an interview last year in which he praised the film industry for giving priority to talent over good looks.
Social media immediately rose to defend Nawazuddin Siddiqui but another Bollywood actor also came to his aid. Shraddha Kapoor, who will soon be seen in Haseena Parkar, shared her views with India Today, “I have always said that personally my definition of beauty is very different. You can come from any background or caste, you can have any skin colour, but I feel true beauty radiates from within. Of course, I feel that in our society there are pressures, but I don’t agree that it’s only in the film industry. Our industry is always in the limelight and that’s the reason it gets highlighted. I feel what’s important is how to deal with that pressure, and understand the things that truly matter. I feel beauty is skin deep.”
