Dark side of Bollywood: Racism exists in Hindi film industry

Calling Nawazuddin Siddiqui an average actor Rishi Kapoor recently had said ldquoYou Siddiqui havenrsquot done it running around trees in your life neither will you get a chance to do it And you arenrsquot capable of doing it either You donrsquot have the image you donrsquot have the talentrdquo Clearly Kapoor was alluding to Siddiquirsquos unconventional looksRishi Kapoor recently lashed out against Nawazuddin Siddiqui stating that the latter was not capable of running around trees in his filmsIn a country obsessed with fair skin it is perhaps no wonder that Bollywood has still not managed to steer away from racism Time and again dusky actresses mdash and actors too mdash in Bollywood have faced the brunt of this racism even though internationally darkskinned celebrities have done well for themselves Be it comments lyrics of songs or dialogues in films racism has raised its ugly head in Bollywood on several occasions and it continues to do soBipasha Basu was apparently referred to as kali billi black cat by fellow actress Kareena Kapoor PicPradeep DhivarOne instance would be when Kareena Kapoor apparently described Bipasha Basu as a lsquokali billirsquo black cat referring to Basursquos dusky complexion The comment raked up a controversy with Basu refusing to make any comments on the samePast instancesIn the past too there have been many cases where racism was evident The late Smita Patil touted as one of the finest actresses in the industry faced it tooSmita Patil seen here in a still from the film Bhumika was discriminated against due to her dark skinMahesh Bhatt who worked with Smita Patil in Arth says ldquoSmita was never apologetic about her looks She refused to conform to the prescribed maxims of the film industry Culturally the word lsquokalirsquo or lsquokalarsquo was used to demean someoneOur minds are coloured by the racism that was practised by the British during their rule in India and it takes years to unshackle oneself from this slave mentality We may have won political freedom but socially we are still slaves to such a backward mindsetrdquoDespite his impressive performance in Zubeida a critic told Manoj Bajpai that he didnrsquot look anything like a prince in the filmBack in 2001 Manoj Bajpai played Raja Vijendra Singh in Shyam Benegalrsquos Zubeida but his role attracted some mean comments including one that said that he was unsuitable to play a princeRecollects Bajpai ldquoMany stars had refused the project after which Shyam Benegal approached me for the role I told him that I hardly look like royalty to which he said that none of the princes look better than me I then took on the role but when the film released despite the rave reviews I got for my performance one critic said in his review that I didnrsquot look anything like a prince Now that really hurt merdquoNational awardwinning actress Usha Jadhav too has faced problems due to her skin colour She says ldquoMany producers refused to cast me because of the colour of my skin Theyrsquod say that they want a fair girl to play the heroinerdquoFilmmaker Anand Rairsquos decision to cast Dhanush in his film Raanjhanaa was met with scepticismFilmmaker Aanand Rai remembers how his decision to cast Dhanush as the main lead in his film Raanjhanaa was met with scepticism ldquoI was told that the hero has to fair and goodlooking as that is what the audiences want today Particularly in north India a goodlooking person is a fair skinned person When people see such a person he she is asked to become a hero heroine Of course I didnrsquot let such talk affect my decisionmakingrdquo he saysActress Nandita Das is another name who is only too aware of the racist side of Bollywood Lending her support to the lsquoDark is beautifulrsquo campaign that fights this obsession with fair skin she points out that the film industry has been glorifying white skin for a long timeldquoThis reflects how biased our society is We keep saying things like lsquoUska rang saaf hairsquo while referring to fairskinned people itrsquos as if dark skin is a dirty thing This mindset is then propagated in our songs stories myths and fablesrdquo she points outRecent examplesIn the film Fashion a drugaddled Priyanka Chopra is shown to become aware of her characterrsquos breakdown when she finds herself in bed with an African American never mind her initial love affairs with her boss and her colleague In Whatrsquos Your Rashee Priyankarsquos parents object to her relationship with a halfAfrican halfGujarati boySimilarly many foreign actresses are said to have found a foothold in the industry due to their white complexion And while many political parties have opposed this lsquoinfluxrsquo an industry insider says that producers cast white girls because they are usually in great shape and are willing to do bold scenes ldquoNot many Indian actresses are comfortable wearing a bikini in front of the camera But foreign actresses have no such qualms making them popular contenders for certain rolesrdquo says this insiderAll said and done there is no mistaking the racist and elitist attitudes of some of the lsquoprivilegedrsquo ones in Bollywood