People all across the globe are now becoming extremely vocal about their concerns towards the world. The recent popular #BlackLivesMatter movement did empower people with dark tones to vent out against the racial discrimination that ruined their lives. While a lot of famous Bollywood celebrities did participate in the movement, Kangana Ranaut and Abhay Deol also questioned the silence of the “woke Indian celebrities” over the same.
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Raising her voice on the issue, Bollywood fashion designer Masaba Gupta recently shared her concerns of having a dark skinned tone in the Indian society. She also went ahead and said that for the Indian society, a #BrownLivesMatter movement should be incorporated. In an interview she said, “Can we first take care of our ‘brown lives matter’ in India and then worry about the US?”
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I find it bizarre that racism that is done so far away from home it is creating such an uproar. Look at the kind of racism people who are dark-skinned in our country has to face. The thing with us Indians is that if you say it ‘aise hi mazaak mein’, you think it will pass. In our culture, the idea of being fair-skinned is related to success. And we think that is the truth.” Masaba added.
The flamboyant designer further alleged Bollywood of promoting colourism. Masaba was quoted saying, “Unfortunately, the beauty, fashion and Bollywood industry are to be blamed. How many times do you hear that you have to be fair-skinned to land a certain role or an advertisement? It is easier for us to speak because it is not happening in our backyard.”
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Not just on the professional front, but Masaba was also exploited for her dark skin during her childhood. Throwing light on this she said,
I had a really tough time in school. Everyone used to be like, ‘oh my god! Why do you keep talking about it? It is not a big deal’. The fact of the matter is that it is a big deal. I grew up thinking I was inferior to white-skinned people. And as a child, if you are conditioned like this, it becomes a part of your upbringing that you believe that probably because I look like this, I won’t get anywhere in life.”
