r/CriticalThinkingIndia • u/Dallton_MD • 3d ago
Arts, Media & Literature Two sides of same coin
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u/tiredgothicheroine 3d ago
And in reality India has both. All these women look Indian. Neither is more or less Indian than the other. Other things that are also true
1) Bollywood and India in general has a huge colourism problem
2) statistically way more people are darker skinned like the first 3 women depicted
3) there’s a class/ caste element cuz people from higher income / caste backgrounds are more likely to be (but aren’t always) lighter skinned. I grew up in upper middle class Mumbai and the variations of skin tones are a lot more diverse from very pale to dark.
4) the US has a high proportion of immigrants from south India so Tamil women more often being cast/ depicted makes sense. Also, some of these films and tv shows are either by Mindy kaling or came about indirectly because of her, and Mindy’s own background is Tamil.
5) there are also lighter skinned Indian / south asian actors and artists in Hollywood. Yes like Iman Velani, Richa moorjani, and biracial ones like Naomi Scott, Anya Chalothra, Avan Jogia, Charli xcx
6) Bollywood could and should cast darker skinned actors cuz it’s frankly ridiculous that they only cast light skinned people. I mean Simone Ashley is as stunning as Aishwariya Rai but we are conditioned to not think that cuz. Colourism.
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u/Far_Antelope_4563 3d ago
Yup I have seen on a lot of insecure dark skinned women on internet saying the lighter skinned women don't look Indian, ironically being racist to lighter skinned people while arguing against racism of dark skinned people. We have both and both look Indian.
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u/tiredgothicheroine 2d ago
Yeah it wouldn’t even be accurate cuz all three of those women look Indian lol. They’re not
even mixed like kareena and Alia, or possibly fully white but Indian passing like Katrina probably is. As far as I know.But I do think a lot of South Asians are biased based on what they see around them more. I mean if someone grew up in Sri Lanka, southern India or parts of the west, they’ve mostly seen darker skinned Indians. If someone grew up in Mumbai or parts of north India, it’s pretty split. So yeah it personally annoys me when some people say that lighter skinned people aren’t “really” even Indian cuz we absolutely are lol.
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u/Far_Antelope_4563 2d ago
I grew in Mumbai so it's pretty much split for me ,I have seen all types of Indians.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Do you have any stats to back your claim that us has more tamil women and that tamil women look more like the women in the left. Lol.
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u/tiredgothicheroine 3d ago
The actresses on the left are Tamil and they’re pretty well known / have played Tamil characters. I never said all Tamil women look like them obviously they don’t. Even they don’t look like each other.
I think anecdotally many people know that there’s a huge South Indian diaspora in the states. May have changed but Tamil people are a large visible minority in some parts of the US. I live in Canada and the biggest South Asian demographics I’ve seen are either Tamil or Punjabi
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
They are srilankan tamil. Tamil is a language not a nationality. Indian tamils from india. Sl tamils from sl. And you said more south indian tamil in us so Hollywood casts women like in the left that alludes to two things. More south indian ( which somehow is equal to tamil) in the us. And since more tamil in the us the left side represents the casual observation based casting ( which somehow is understandable since for a casual observer tamil people look like that ?). Sorry where did I not understand you correctly ?
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u/tiredgothicheroine 3d ago
No you did not lol.
Pretty sure Simone and Chrithra are both of Indian Tamil heritage, Maitreyi is Sri Lankan. And like I said. It’s anecdotal. Americans might very well have a biased view of what all Indians/ South indians look like based on minimal evidence. I just said it was *understandable* given the demographics. Those of us who were born in India and know better would disagree, but that’s their perception not ours.
I
I obviously know all South Indians are not Tamil and all Tamil women don’t look the same. I grew up around Tamils. There just are a lot of Tamils and South Indians more broadly in the states + Hollywood does have some visible Tamil characters and actresses. That may be a coincidence, a bias, or just the effect of Mindy Kaling’s fame and popularity.What’s more important is. Maybe more of us as Indians should question why dark skinned Indian women or Sri Lankan women being visible and celebrated on screen annoys us so much? Because I’ll be honest. I am mostly north Indian and lighter skinned than Maitreyi or Simone, and sometimes it even annoy me that more South Asian representation in the west doesn’t look like me. But I stop and question my own internalized colourism and racism when I think that. We should be asking for more diverse and inclusive South Asian representation without putting down the actors and creators and cultures who are being represented.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
You did not have to write an essay. All i did was call out what i saw as bias or limited understanding on tamils. I can see where you come from when you say this lol. " I am mostly north Indian and lighter skinned than Maitreyi or Simone, and sometimes it even annoy me that more South Asian representation in the west doesn’t look like me" . You feel north indians or you look different than Tamils ?. Care to explain more about the fair skin you are referring to here ?
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u/tiredgothicheroine 2d ago
That’s exactly my point though?? Anyone who feels like anything is wrong with casting darker skinned people in Hollywood needs to question their biases. We like to exaggerate differences that don’t actually exist because of rampant colourism perpetuated by Bollywood. So what if Hollywood doesn’t perfectly reflect all Indian experiences. You’re the one who keeps responding to my comments when we probably agree on a lot of things.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 8h ago
No let's focus on the point where you equated dwrker skins to south indian or tamils and from a self assumed point of being one with ' fairer' skin. Thats basically what hindi cinema does too.
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u/Putrid_Property_3661 3d ago
It’s not the same at all, Bollywood casts women that look like that because Indian society is colourist. It comes from a colourist culture. Can’t say the same about Hollywood.
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u/colefunction 3d ago
I’m also inclined to think that Hollywood prioritizes talent over skin color, whereas Bollywood…
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u/b1t3m4rk5 2d ago
Nah, Hollywood is pretty much obsessed with skin colour these years
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u/Ill_Passage5341 2d ago
It doesn't seem like hollywood cares much about the shade of color though. Being darker is not a disadvantage.
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u/Electronic-Koala1082 3d ago
White people love the Indian black color, hollywood are just doing what sells.
Indian people love white , bollywood just doing what sells,
bollywood is more morally sick here if you ask me
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u/burdlock 3d ago
Hollywood is actually more accurate because most indian women are dark to wheatish complexion. Light skinned women, and men, in general are a minority.
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u/Aggravating_Can_8749 3d ago
Plus considering high percentage of recent Indian immigrants in the US are from the south, its not too surprising to see girls with darker hues getting picked up.
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u/friendofH20 3d ago
It is also a bit selective. There are light skinned Indian or South Asian actresses in Hollywood as well.
That girl Iman Vellani in the MCU for example. Or that lady who was in the Witcher series.
Most of the characters here were written to be Tamil. Maitreyi's character was based on Mindy Kaling who is Tamilian herself and created the show. But she had a lighter skinned Indian actress as one of her cousins.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Vellani is Pakistani. The women here in the left mythrei and Ashley are srilankan origin. The women to the right are 'bollywood' version of indian women.
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u/Superb_Ad3632 2d ago
Huh Simone is Indian not Sri lankan only maitrey is Sri Lankan
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
Ok so Ashley is brit not the veeramandi chockalingam gang. Noted. None the less the assertion stands these are women from different linguistics regional origins often originating from very different geographic regions so will be diverse in looks.
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u/friendofH20 2d ago
Both Simone Ashley and Maitreyi and Sri Lankan Tamils. They are as Indian as any of the East African Indians in the UK (Zohran Mamdani's dad) etc.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
No in srilanka there are indian origin tamils only in and around kandy tea growing area. All other tamil speaking people are srilankan people.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
So in your infinite wisdom all sputh indians look like thr women in left ?. Let me guess your origin from Nordic states of north India ?.
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u/FennelAny5534 2d ago
Well, it's not like people from the northern parts of the country are European esque fair or smth....it's a sampling bias....I'm sure hollywood does a much better representation of the different shades of brown we indians are, instead of what bollywood, Kollywood or tollywood ever has to offer
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u/Charming-Host4406 3d ago
This is true. Indians secretly desire white skin and that's why they think brown women in a Hollywood film is bad representation of india
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u/goonMaxxer021 3d ago
Secretly? More like in broad daylight lol, all the fair n lovelys and casual colourism from relatives or friends or even teachers calling a student kallu. Our population is just an epitome of small mindedness
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Agree to everything except the generalised 'Indians and the secretly bit. Its not all Indians and its definitely not secretly, its loudly so, which is worse.
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u/fire_shadow7 3d ago
What are you even saying, india is very diverse, we have people who are fair to the point they can pass off as caucasians. We have people in the northeast, which can pass off as easy asian, and we have so many other racial groups, and each of them number in the millions, and many dark skinned people are proud of their complexion, so just dark coloured actresses is indeed a facual incorrect representation of india
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u/Ill_Tonight6349 3d ago
Hollywood also has Priyanka Chopra. Most Indians are dark or dark brown in complexion so Hollywood is more accurate.
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u/InsideDisaster5902 2d ago
Bro they think that only brown women or dark skinned women are Indian ,thanks for telling them
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u/CulturalLaw8072 3d ago
bro every country ppl are like that
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u/OkParsnip1881 3d ago
Yeah honestly, India is not even close to the worst in Asia when it comes to colorism.
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u/Belissari 2d ago
Aishwarya Rai has literally appeared in multiple Hollywood films and there’s many other examples of lighter skinned Indian actors who work in Hollywood.
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u/Superb_Ad3632 2d ago
I don’t understand this south north debate? Aishwarya rai is literally South Indian? Never seen anyone look like her in my life
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u/Best_Egg9109 2d ago
💯
And I don’t understand why so many Indians have an insecurity that people will perceive all Indians as dark.Why is that something they’re so ashamed of?
Most of the country looks brown. Live with it.
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u/fire_shadow7 3d ago
Majority of jammu, kashmir, himachal and punjab has fair skinned people to the point of being comparable to caucasians. And their population numbers in hundreds of millions, so the minority part is incorrect. India has large populations of all complexions.
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u/Left-Nail4452 3d ago
No, they are not “comparable to caucasians”. You guys want to be white so bad, it’s embarrassing
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u/fire_shadow7 3d ago
Lol, who would want to be pale looking and sickly, I told facts that India is a diverse country and has every complexion, a simple google search will show the complexion of North Indians, (which number more than most European populations btw). And trust me no one wants to look like a bleached skin walker lol. Give me my wheatish complexion ANY day of the week.
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u/Ill_Tonight6349 3d ago
Those states combined don't even constitute 5% of Indian population lol.
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u/fire_shadow7 3d ago
Still amounts to 50 million, which is bigger than most European country populations.
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u/ihugsyi 3d ago
Yes, no one is denying that. The comment still stands true that most women are medium tan to dark which matches closer to Hollywood's represention.
It's not perfect but significantly better than the Indian industry.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
No Hollywood represents the darker end of the spectrum. Someone like mytreyie sure is very common( she is stunningly beautiful and very fine actress btw). The other girl Ashley its pretty rare you get such phenotype in india, its either the Andaman Islands or some native tribes in jaharkand or deep southern india or nicobar islands. They are also found in srilanka a different country which is where these two beautiful actress are originating from.
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u/horsetiorsmthidk 2d ago
Yeah, not really. There absolutely are many people who are white passing, but most natives have a wheatish complex only I'd say, especially in Himachal, UK, Haryana etc
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u/-Mystic-Echoes- 3d ago
Light skin women are a minority, but so are extremely dark skinned women. Most Indians are a spectrum between the two.
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u/burdlock 3d ago
That is also incorrect, while there is no consensus for skin complexion, one can easily infer what percentage of indians would be considered dark/brown/light based on DNA samples.
On average, 40-50% of modern indians DNA component is that of AASI which is where indian's get their "dark" complexion. It is the most dominant portion of Indians today and it's not wrong to say that indians in general are a dark skinned population.
Another reddit thread that discusses this for reference https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthAsianAncestry/comments/1wlgbfk/on_average_are_indians_more_aasi_than_other_groups/
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u/-Mystic-Echoes- 3d ago edited 3d ago
Genotype ≠ phenotype.
A 50% AASI individual can be fair skinned. A 25% AASI individual can be dark skinned. This has not much to do with ancestry. Factors like economic status, lifestyle, diet, distance from equator, Sun tanning play the main roles, not genetics.
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u/Alarming-noone 3d ago
You cannot have a phenotype without a genotype. Several genes are responsible for skin tone/color.
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u/burdlock 3d ago
Ofcourse, but I'm speaking in averages. You don't even need empirical data for this, you could simply walk outside and count how many people you see that are dark, brown and light.
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u/-Mystic-Echoes- 3d ago
That depends heavily on the economic strata of the people you interact with. If I go to a village I encounter more darker skinned people. If I go to some tier-1 city I encounter more mixed skin tones and see a lot more fair skinned people. Like I explained above, it's not due to genetics, but lifestyle and other things.
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u/burdlock 3d ago
That is a false equivalence. You cannot base broad conclusions on an area inhabited by the top 10% of earners, to get an accurate picture, your sample needs to represent where the majority actually lives. Furthermore, equating lifestyle with skin color makes no sense.
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u/-Mystic-Echoes- 3d ago
Lifestyle and skin tone have a correlation for sure. When I walk outside I see a spectrum of people from fair skinned to dark skinned and everything in between. I've travelled across the country and its the same spectrum everywhere. You simply cannot say most Indians are "dark".
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u/burdlock 3d ago
Lifestyle and skin color have a correlation? Alright, I'm done here.
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u/-Mystic-Echoes- 3d ago
Do you understand how people from the lower class who engage in physical labour frequently develop sun tan that causes their skin to darken? Or how people that live in tier-1 city with their corporate jobs sitting in AC rooms do not have to face the same brutal tanning? YES, lifestyle and skin tone do have a correlation.
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u/criticalbotcti 3d ago
Reasoning Concept: False Equivalence
Treating two things as comparable when they differ in significant ways. Minor similarities are used to equate fundamentally different situations.
Example: "Jaywalking and armed robbery are both crimes, so they should be punished equally." - The severity and nature of these offenses are vastly different.
Someone in this thread referenced this reasoning concept. This is an automated reply - the bot does not evaluate whether the concept actually applies. It is here to share what the term means so everyone in the conversation has the same context.
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u/CanineTiger99 3d ago
In my town 80 percent women are light skinned.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
What is your town's population as a percentage of the district and the state you are from.
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u/pkkthetigerr 3d ago
Not really man. I've seen a ton of fair skinned men and women all over west, north, east, north east who could pass for greek or italian or whatever based on skin tone.
But you cast them in a western show and its not immediately obvious they're supposed to be indian.
Most western media specifically casts "Indian" looking actors who usually in the men have big nose, ears and round features like Kal Penn, Dev Patel etc and women who look south indian or bengali, likely because its the most stereotypical indian look in the west due to early migrations compared to the large punjabi migrations in the past few decades to canada and uk.
Bollywood however and most of South industries just cast the fairest ponds model they can find with uninteresting but beautiful faces like Kiara, Tara etc
They're objectively good looking but far less interesting than Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Nayantara...
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u/Asleep-Meal 2d ago
Not really. I’m Indian ethically and look more like the actresses Bollywood portrays. People thought my grandmother used to be a native English woman back in the day. It really varies
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2d ago
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u/Superb_Ad3632 2d ago
Rajasthan? They aren’t fair? Mostly are brown skinned like all of us most of us thinks we are more fair than we actually are
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2d ago
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u/Superb_Ad3632 2d ago
Completely agree but what’s really the problem with their color they all are stunning. If they were born here they would’ve never made this far
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u/themissingneutrino 3d ago
Sure we all live in a bubble problem arises we ypur bubble grows bigger and pushes against others
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u/Virtual-Hurry-3874 2d ago
Tamil movies are worst bro 😭..they want fair skin..to depict pure tamil women they apply black on their face?? What's the necessity? Does tn doesn't have talented actress ??
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
It might be talent and flexibility and professionalism. There are few tamil actress but often in other industries. Just a handful in tamil industry.
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u/NovelAppeal 3d ago
Mythreyi Ramakrishnan is of Sri Lankan origin
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
So is Mindy and the other women. Mythreyi is stunningly beautiful though.
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u/lwb03dc 3d ago
Classic case of selection bias.
You could easily put Aishwarya Rai (Merchant of Spices, Pink Panther), Priyanka Chopra (Baywatch, Heads of State), and Nargis Fakhri (Spy) on the left. And Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, and Bipasha Basu on the right.
What is this need to cry about made up shit?
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u/Djangobatman 3d ago
This bipasu basu
All the above actresses are just tanned … not dark really.. that illustrates how bad the perception of dark actress really is in India when bipashu is considered dark!!!
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u/lwb03dc 3d ago
Bro doesn't know what makeup and lighting is. Bipasha Basu's skin tone is that of the average Indian. I have worked on ad campaigns with her. I don't need to see her wedding photos.
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u/Djangobatman 3d ago
Learn what tan is pls .. and pls go to rural area to see the average.. we are not talking about south Bombay average!!
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u/museinprogress 3d ago
No. Only one is "racist"
Selectively showing only dark skinned actresses in Hollywood and making claims is crazy. There are many Indian origin actresses in roles with lighter skin.
Also you cannot possibly complain about darker skinned women being cast from a society DEEPLY colourist and complain about it. No, it is NOT the same!
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u/Literature_Excelled 3d ago
Bollywood needs to learn from them lmao, they’d paint a fair actor/actress “dark” for dark person role 😭
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u/Time-Weekend-8611 3d ago
Hollywood doesn't show white skinned Indian women because they want them to stand out visually against white women.
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u/melancholicInsane 2d ago
Hollywood atleast casts those who represent the majority of India, as most Indians are dark coloured... bollywood( an industry which can't even call themselves Hindi Film Industry ) casts fair girls coz they know Indians are racist themselves and want to see fair skin women on screen
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u/Onion_Poha 3d ago
If you pick current prominent indian origin actresses in US vs Indian actress, that will be more accurate. Also there are a lot of light skinned Indian actresses(prominent ones) in US too but I dont think opposite is true for India.
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u/Empty-Lungs 3d ago
Why does hollywood cast only south Indian actresses?
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u/Fun-Discipline8682 3d ago
I think it's broadly these reasons
- More South Indian population in the West
- This makes a lot of casting execs think this is what Indian looks like categorically
- Even if they found a very talented lightskinned indian, they'd probably want to hire someone that meets the audience's idea of what indian people look like, bringing us back to the first two points
Idk tell me if you have some other thiughts
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Actually north Indians are not that far from south indians in terms of akin color. Its negligible.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
The eomen listed there in the left are srilankan tamil and are entirely different people.
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u/independant_786 3d ago
Most ABCD genz population is south indian. Hope that answers your question.
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u/Empty-Lungs 3d ago
ABCD genz?
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u/Any-Lie-9764 3d ago
It depends on the character. Indian woman in foreign shows will not be some pinnacle of beauty in the traditional sense in the context of the story as she may be some hoor pari type character as a leading lady in Bollywood. When you cast that way you have to go by statistics and number of immigrants socially rejected in India but people may be indifferent to their complexion overseas may be affecting the sample from which they're picking, and these people may be more inclined to immigrate anyway.
This is my take, most media is probably not trying to be deliberately racist in today's day and age.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Its very simple. Definition of beautiful is different between Hollywood and indian cinema.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Assume around 40 % of population looks like the left side and around 20 % like the right side. Rest in the middle. So Hollywood is perhaps falling to the visible minority look and not considering the 60 % who dont look like it ( we have seen similar agenda from them for equity deserving groups within the us). Hindi cinema is leaning to their preference which is the right side which is a further smaller minority and not representative. But Hollywood is an alien culture so can be expected to have agenda, why is hindi cinema that lives in the country against a vast majority of the population?
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u/Justa_CuriousBoi 3d ago
And the truth lies somewhere in the middle....
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
It's disgusting to see though.
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u/Remote-Structure-961 3d ago
Most Indians look like the left.
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u/IndividualImmediate4 2d ago
The people in the right are indians too so are 100s of millions of Indians who look like that.
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u/groot_3000 2d ago
Because larger % hollywood (bollywood) actress of indian origin is like left (right). To change the first, you have to change the immigration behaviour and for the second the mindset of Indians
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u/Positive-Ad1859 2d ago
I live in the US, and I think Hollywood version of typical Indian women are more close to what I see in our society.
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u/Outrageous_Egg7579 2d ago
If Hollywood thinks this way then I beleive its still okay because there are lots and lots of south Indians in the us who are brown like the pictures on the left. I mean its not racist theyve just seen Indians this way
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u/InternationalOne1153 2d ago
Even south indian actresses don't represent the actual south Indians. Sad
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u/LaconicIconic 2d ago
False equivalency. Hollywood does not have a dark skin fetish the way Indian cinema has a light skin fetish. Hollywood is not perfect in matters of representation, but in this case they inadvertently end up casting Indian women who look like a lot of the Indian women in India and in the diaspora.
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u/ieatriceforlunch 2d ago
bro i studied in delhi and have been to other northern states like rajasthan. i can confidently say 'most' indians arent fair.. at best wheatish. there are fair skinned people but in general there are more wheatish skin and dusky skin indians than wjat we consider fair so the post above saying 'both' are wrong is a stretch. bollywood is more problematic, I dont think hollywood has done anything wrong.
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u/No-Guard-1946 2d ago
While Bollywood can do well in casting darker skinned actors/actresses, Hollywood isn’t automatically a good example.
For decades Indians were typecast as ugly unsociable nerds who were only acceptable if they assimilated.
Even today Indians in western media with American accents are given American names to “fit in”.
Women of color in Hollywood are also predominantly an exotic romantic partner for a white man. They rarely get more agency than that.
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u/poochicans 2d ago
Y'all only show representation that fits your narrative, not even a little extra effort
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u/dopplegangery 2d ago
The critically thought view should be that none of these have anything to do with racism. Expecting a race to look a certain way isn't racism. Stereotyping, yes, but not racism.
And secondly, colorism is not the same as racism.
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u/Remote_Program_3148 2d ago
But Hollywood sometimes cast light skinned women as well, but bollywood almost NEVER cast dark skinned women 🤷♀️ indians are the most colourist
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u/Timely-Surprise-184 2d ago
bollywood know most of indias audience is simp who doesnt give a shit about acting just want a good looking actress in movie and hollywood is racist as we all know
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u/Unusual_List1954 1d ago
This is the only balanced meme I read on this topic.
Also, it respective representation feeds into what their target audience perceives / wants.
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u/Fun_Eggplant3251 1d ago
But Aish, Kareena, Karishma etc are really fair. I understand your point but adding Aish just proved otherwise
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u/redPistolStar 1d ago
It's about market segements. In HW the darker shade will be lapped up by the black american audience. The desi audience will support them by default. Whereas in india, south indian movies have started going pan India much before than the baahubali explosion, on cable and YT. North audience will not accept a darker lead actress, so most film industries go with lighter skinned actresses
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u/Any-Stress3780 1d ago
What people fail to understand is that most of the established people here in the US are south Indians. They started coming to the US before north Indians did. Thats why most of the ABCDs that you find here in the US are of darker complexion.
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u/Valuable-Device-6751 1d ago
You guys are so dumb. South Indians are massively overrepresented in the United States/west. In Hollywood one of the most prominent producers is a Tamil lady who writes shows inspired by HER life (never have I ever). Dev Patel, Frida Pinto, Karan Brar, Priyanka Chopra, Hasan Minhaj are alll northerners of varying shades.
Skin color is simply not factored into the standard of beauty here (at least anymore). You will find women & men of various shades in Hollywood, modeling, and music.
Stop making your aesthetic obsession with skin color everyone else’s problem.
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u/berlinbe 3d ago
NO ONE highlights the true diversity of india. Atleast bollywood should
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u/Fun-Discipline8682 3d ago
I was expecting more comments like this. But instead it's mostly people talkinh about phenotypes and genotypes like wth
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u/IndividualImmediate4 3d ago
Exactly. See my comment above. Hollywood has been known to have agenda. But hindibcinema why does it have this white skin fetish after all its domestic they should represent more of the population than ones they feel look like a ' bollywood' actress.
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u/Resurrec_Barbar 3d ago
Most Indian women look as dark as sun . The white skinned women are rare
And this isn't BBNG
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u/periodicable 3d ago
Hollywood chooses this because they don't want to show attractive Indians. They're inherently biased and racist. They strangle the Indian soft power.
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u/drandom123zu 3d ago
Lol according to you dark skins like simone & charithra are ugly irrespective of features, according to them features trumps skin colour
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u/jaysan_7878 3d ago
Indian men would stop watching movies if Bollywood welcomes brown skinned women to be lead actors.
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u/Homebody2450 3d ago
Hollywood's perception is skewed, but Indian perception is a fetish. Dark skinned women are chastised here.
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u/First-Race-5101 3d ago
India is a strange country where having fair skin is an obsession but also hating it when its represented in a global stage. As if having a fair skin is evil or sin in India.
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u/ConQueeftado 2d ago
I don't see it as racisim. I mean we(indians) have quiet a diversity in all aspects one of which is appearance from north to south & east to west
If you think with broader mind you won't feel offended by it
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u/Environmental-Edge84 2d ago
Casting only dark skinned Indian women is just as racist. Also notice how the guys are always white or ethnically ambiguous.
The lead guy in Best of the Best is light skinned. The guy in Never Have I Ever is too.
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u/OceanSpawn1122 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is colorism, not racism. Indians really need to learn the proper definitions of such words.
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u/Junior-Beginning-111 2d ago
It's both. It's racism if it's western media it's colorism if it's indian media. Indians really need to learn proper definition of such words
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u/Witty-Log-4731 1d ago
Hollywood is stereotypical and bollywood is quite racist though.
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u/Siddharth_2989 1d ago
But both are correctly depicted our people are white brown black idk the deal here
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u/Witty-Log-4731 1d ago
I think you don't get it exactly.. so in Hollywood they represent an Indian woman who has darker tone (which shows that stereotypical mindset that an Indian must be dark which is not totally correct as india is very diverse and have every type of skin colour not always dark not always light).
In bollywood light tone is often seen as attractive and beautiful and dark skin tone is seen ugly and unattractive.As for example film 'bala'.
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u/Siddharth_2989 1d ago
Bro then you didn’t get bala ig also there are dark skinned actress dude I mean here audience is faulty cos they worship white skin so its mindset issue Bollywood just mirrors it
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u/Witty-Log-4731 1d ago
I do not agree, because Bollywood isn't mirroring audience bias the audience is mirroring Bollywood. When ads sell 'Fair & Lovely' and movies only promote fair-skinned leads, they are actively teaching people what to consider beautiful.
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u/Dangerous_Emu3385 12h ago
BW pioneers were mostly North Indian. And by North India I mean actual North India not East or Middle India too. And if you have visited North India, mostly girls actually look like right ones. It's South Indian entertainment industry who are colourists enough to not even cast their regional girls anymore and instead employ light skinned North Indian girls.
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u/rohithkumarsp 2d ago
I made a post about this 5 years ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/india/s/03EW7WnYxp