Mumbai: Thursday, Unilever, which owns fairness cream Fair & Lovely, decided to rename the brand to promote a more inclusive vision of beauty and discourage colour discrimination.
How Celebs reacted to the move?
Calling it a revolutionary step, Bipasha Basu penned a long note and narrated her story of growing up as a dusky beauty and how she didn’t deviate from her principles when brands offered her to endorse such beauty products in the past.
Starting her note she talked about how her distant relatives would compare her and her sister for the colour of their skins. She wrote, “From the time I was growing up I heard this always, ‘Bonnie is darker than Soni. She is little dusky na?’ Even though my mother is a dusky beauty and I look a lot like her. I never knew why that would be a discussion by distant relatives when I was a kid (sic).”
She added, “Soon at 15/ 16 I started modelling and then I won the supermodel contest… all newspapers read… dusky girl from Kolkata is the winner. I wondered again why Dusky is my first adjective??? Then I went to New York and Paris to work as a model and I realised my skin colour was exotic there and I got more work and attention because of it. Another discovery of mine:) Once I came back into India and film offers started… and finally I did my first film and from an absolute Ajnabee to Hindi film industry… I suddenly was accepted and loved. But the adjective stayed which I started liking and loving by then. DUSKY girl wows the audiences in her debut film (sic).”
Abhay Deol who has been vocal about fairness cream selling a false idea of beauty has applauded Hindustan Unilever for dropping fair from the name of their skin cream, Fair & Lovely. Calling it a beauitful beginning, the DevD actor penned a note to congratulate people who made efforts to achieve this feat. He also said that Indians need to break their conditioning regarding what constitutes for beauty.
Abhay shared several news articles about the company dropping fair from their brand to promote their inclusive vision on beauty. He wrote, “It took a world backlash and the #blacklivesmatter movement to give us a push in this direction. But make no mistake, all of you who have been vocal about the need for a cultural shift in regard to the sale and endorsement of fairness creams in our country contributed to this victory. We have a long way to go in breaking our conditioning of what constitutes for beauty, but this is a small step in the right direction. It’s the starting point to a long road ahead. What a beautiful beginning!(sic).”
Reacting to the Fair & Lovely news, Richa Chadha shared a very old photo of herself. In the photo, the actress is seen wearing a tee with ‘Not Fair But Lovely’ written on it. Along with the picture, she wrote, “T shirt printed in 2015. While we’re dismantling other BS in 2020, let’s celebrate our complexion! (sic).”
https://twitter.com/RichaChadha/status/1276421211166130181
PNN