In the light of #BlackLivesMatter and HUL’s turnaround with Glow & Lovely winning a lot of brickbats, social media has become rife with many dark-skinned Indian women recalling their growing years; primarily being made the butt of many jokes and jibes.
The Sunday Standard decided to ask three dark-skinned Indian men if they had the same experiences too.
Bose Krishnamachari
Founder member and President of Kochi Biennale Foundation
I have been ridiculed at a few spaces outside our country, but it is a shame to experience it in our own country where the vast majority does not have fair skin.
I hail from a region where migrants and people of diverse communities and regions have built an amazing metropolis and economy.
Once, I was hunting for a property in south Mumbai for a studio with a real estate consultant, she was a charming and beautiful foreigner married to a head of a banker in Mumbai.
While I was climbing the stairs of the property in the middle of a high-end galleries, a few men laughingly asked my friend, ‘ye kaaliya ko kidhar lekar ja rehe ho?’.
My friend was visually embarrassed and helplessly looked at me but I was cool about it though.
The guys must have thought that I must be from abroad and did not speak Hindi. Anyway, on my return I could not stop myself from asking him, ‘sab teekh-takh hai na bhai?’.
During my college days at the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai, some of the guys used to call me Kaalia or Madrasi.
I was fond of entertainment so, my friends and I used to visit night clubs. I have experienced a few unsavoury incidents in London and in San Francisco’s nightclubs.
I think they didn’t like to see me having a good time, so I’ve encountered little bit of bullying and accidental pushing on the dance floor!
As an artist, I believe that black is the mother of all colours and also imbibed it from Rig veda; ‘Thamas soma jyothir gamaya...’, which means; darkness carries light.
It is a real understanding of eternal darkness and light or experience of enlightenment.
Philosophically sounds great but majority of Indians look for wheatish or fair skin when looking for a life partner in marriage advertisements.
Only great love can rise above matters like skin tone or anything physical. Darkness absorbs light and darkness shines and glows as well.
Sachin V Kumbhar
Miss India Trainer for Diction & Stage presentation
In spite of the new age world we live in, it’s very unfortunate that colour discrimination still exists.
I have personally experienced this since childhood as I have had a wheatish complexion.
I was called kaalia, kallu ram, KK, blackie. Little did they know that it hampered my confidence and I’m sure it does for many who experience this on a daily basis.
It gave me a feeling of being somewhat lower as, unfortunately, some fair-skinned individuals think it’s a privilege to be on the lighter side.
In fact, when I shifted from Dubai to Mumbai to restart my career, I went in for an acting audition and the first thing the reps said “oh we were looking for a fairer boy”.
It hit me hard and pulled me down and for almost seven years that’s till 2018 I didn’t go for any auditions and continued with anchoring and voicing.
Thankfully, times have changed and colour is no more a prerogative. I believe you must let your work speak, wear your colour with confidence and all will fall in place.
Karun Raman,
Fashion Choreographer & actor
My debut as a film actor was with Madhvanji 20 years back in a Tamil film. But after this film when I started going out to seek work I was told, you are so dark.
There was a lot of colour bais. They were always looking for fair people and not bothered about talent. I have been in the industry for over 20 years now, but I have seen things changing only in the last four years.
Now they are not worried. Now big models are all dark skinned.
Being rejected for being dark was depressing. I had started going for auditions with lots of make-up to look fair, which also didn’t help as it would not look natural.
So I gave up acting, and got into fashion choreography.
It is only now, after 14 years, that I have got back into acting (in Tamil and Malyalam films). Now I see people accepting dark people.
Black is beautiful now. I think brands (like Fair & Lovely) should not be campaigning that use to cream will make one’s skin lighter because it won’t.
But I also feel if people are taking it (such creams and campaigns) seriously, they are stupid. You should be comfortable with yourself.
Having said that, I feel companies should not focus on such campaigns as these make dark people look sad and degraded.