Abhay Deol Take A Bow by Suhel Johar

India and racism share an age old history. However, even after continuous awareness and education, discrimination based on race and specifically skin colour isn't new to Indians. Our beauty standards spell doom for dark-skinned ones whereas the fair ones are taken to be role models.

Abhay Deol, known for his choice of unconventional roles in Bollywood, deserves a bow for he did what other actors would not dare to even think. Yes, earlier this week, Abhay Deol, in a series of posts on his Facebook page, lashed out at several actors who endorsed fairness creams in their career span. The actor even shared pictures of John Abraham, Ileana D'Cruz, Vidya Balan, Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Sidharth Malhotra, Sonam Kapoor and also Shah Rukh Khan of their fairness cream ads.

Abhay Deol is known for his outspoken nature. He does not believe in mincing words when it comes to expressing his opinion. He gave out strong and indirect messages citing racism happening in the country.

Here are his posts:

 

Abhay even shared a post by Nandita Das, who has always campaigned against fairness cream. Shekhar Kapur is perhaps the first celeb who tried to highlight the issue with a tweet sometime back. Unfortunately his tweet went unnoticed so it’s really good to notice that the issue is finally being discussed and debated.

 

 

Moreover, he also posted a status update, saying, "There's a lot more of these campaigns that are blatantly, and sometimes subtly, selling you the idea that whiter skin is better than darker skin. No one at the top of their game in any field is going to tell you that it is demeaning, false, and racist.

You have to see that for yourself. You have to stop buying into the idea that a particular shade is better than others. Unfortunately if you look at matrimonial ads you will see how entrenched in our psyche this belief is. We even use the word 'dusk' to describe the colour of someone’s skin!

While an individual may not be able to change this attitude in his/her community, he/she can at least start with the family."

 

He even shared a story by a leading daily which talked about how a few actors refused to endorse fairness creams. He said, "Not everyone in my industry is irresponsible."

Some of these actors include Kangana Ranaut, Ranbir Kapoor, Randeep Hooda and Kalki Koechlin.

 

Interestingly, Abhay Deol’s rant on Facebook about celebrities endorsing fairness cream has offended Sonam Kapoor and she isn’t quiet about it. Initially, she hid her displeasure on the facebook posts by choosing to agree with Abhay Deol. Infact she even validated the point by responding to her Raanjhanaa and Aisha co-star on Twitter. Sonam had tweeted, “Thank you Abhay, I shot this campaign ten years ago and didn’t understand the ramifications. Thank you for bringing this to the forefront.”

To this then Abhay said, “More power to you @sonamakapoor maybe you can use your power as well to take this further than the forefront.” In her third tweet on the issue Sonam Kapoor shared a pic of Esha Deol (Abhay’s cousin) promoting fairness cream! Her point being, ‘dude, your cousin also endorsed the product once upon a time.’

But guess what, ironically, instead of getting Abhay trolled Sonam got trolled for her post on Esha because there was another tweet she shared where she said, “did anyone bother reading this tweet or just want to troll. I think it’s important to know the whole picture before jumping to conclusions”

 

Ah, quite a drama. And guess what, she deleted all her tweets! So far she remains the only celebrity who has reacted to Abhay’s post.

Interestingly, When Sonam Kapoor was first roped in to do L'Oréal Fairness cream ad that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was first considered for. Ash's spokesperson had sent a retort which said that Ash hadn't been replaced and as principle would never endorse any fairness cream. But look at this picture of endorsing the same skin whitening ad by the same company that Sonam is now the face for.

 

Skin colour does not in any way make a person superior. Real superiority comes from within and in one's talent/ behavior towards his friends, family and old and young. Perhaps the notion about fair skin being superior and the racism that’s prevalent in the country has actually found a platform. Because this is one topic that a lot of us are familiar with but often choose to not talk about it. One wonders how the other celebs would react over Abhay’s tweets and facebook posts.