Soon after actor Abhay Deol called out Bollywood’s obsession with fair skin, and actors and actresses who endorse fairness creams, Trapped actor Rajkummar Rao recently spoke about it in an interview with DNA India. Admitting that during his struggling days as an actor, he was approached for a fairness cream ad, he maintained that it was never something he’d think of endorsing in the first place.
“I’ll never endorse a fairness cream no matter how much money I am offered,” he said before talking about his first tryst with racism in Bollywood.
“When I was looking for work in Mumbai around seven years back, I used to look different from what I look today. I did an audition for a director who was making his debut film (I won’t name who he is). He really liked my test, but told me, ‘Acting is fine, but I can’t give you a lead part because leading heroes are supposed to be fair and muscular. But do you want to play a small character in my film?’ I didn’t do his film because I couldn’t agree with his theory of filmmaking.”
The actor even weighed in on how women face more rejection than men in terms of their skin colour. “I do know a couple of my female actress friends who have faced this complexion issue. I find this whole thing very stupid! I’m very proud of my skin colour.”
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Rajkummar Rao has acted in several Indie films such as Kai Po Che, Aligarh, Shahid (for which he won the National Award) and Queen, to name a few. Known to speak his mind, the actor recently admitted that nepotism forced him to watch non-talented actors’ work.
Rao’s comments come on the heels of the recent racist attacks on Nigerian people in New Delhi, and Tarun Vijay’s remarks on South Indians.
Last week, Abhay Deol, in a series of posts on social media, put up screenshots of actors/actresses in fairness cream commercials.
Pic: India Today