The desi face of Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS, Chandrika Ravi, talks brown beauty, rejection from India, reclaiming the tag of sex symbol and playing Silk Smitha in an upcoming biopic
Chandrika Ravi
When Chandrika Ravi appeared in Diljit Dosanjh’s music video Saanvle, the word itself was evidently the message that both Ravi and Dosanjh were making. The title translates to “dusky”, which is an uncomfortable word that has existed in Indian beauty culture. In the video, Ravi stands exactly for every contradiction that the word offers. When she sits down for a conversation with Sunday mid-day, she starts with why the project felt personal. “What got me the most excited about the project was that someone like Diljit, having the global impact he has, was putting a song out celebrating something I have been championing for as an Indian actress for years. The visibility, especially for young girls, that they are beautiful as they are and our brown skin should be celebrated was what I needed growing up.”
It is a simple idea, but for Ravi it has been a long fight. Long before she became a viral sensation or a global face of Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand SKIMS, Ravi was a young woman growing up outside Melbourne, convinced her future needed to be better. “I come from very humble beginnings. I was born in a small town outside of Melbourne to immigrant parents born in Singapore. But I had always told everyone around me that I was going to move to Los Angeles and be an actor, without knowing how or when I could do it,” she says.
Ravi had already been training in dance and acting since the age of three, but Australia’s film and television industry felt limited in ways she couldn’t ignore. “I was starting to feel a lot of discouragement in Australia because they simply weren’t writing parts for people of colour. I took the leap of faith and booked a ticket with whatever money I had, packed three suitcases and left for LA with USD 500 in my bank account and a dream. It’s the best decision I have ever made. I learnt resilience and determination as a person. As an artiste, I have trained with the best, and have learnt the ins-and-outs of the industry.”
Bhavitha Mandava. Pic/Getty Images
But the journey toward confidence did not arrive without bruises. Some of the deepest ones came from the place she felt most connected to — India. “India broke me. It was essentially the Indian film industry that broke me as a person and performer. I was devastated,” she says.
The pain, she explains, was not about failure. It was about something far more difficult to accept. “It was a very hard concept to grasp that my talent wasn’t enough to be cast in something in India. That ultimately, the colour of my skin would dictate whether or not I got a part. Having trained my whole life on my craft, and having represented India and Indians on a global stage, it felt like I was constantly being rejected by my own people. I had to keep reminding myself that I had to keep fighting, not just to prove my worth, but for the other young boys and girls who grew up feeling like they too weren’t good enough because of colourism,” she says.
If Ravi speaks openly about rejection, she speaks just as openly about pride. “A constant reminder has been how much my skin colour and features are celebrated in America. I love when people ask me if I’ve come back from a vacation because my skin looks sun-kissed, but it’s my blessing of being born as an Indian woman.”
Chandrika Ravi
The larger point, she says, is about resisting a culture that constantly tells women they need fixing. She says, “In a world where women are especially picked apart and constantly made to feel like they have to be a certain way with beauty standards constantly changing, I am proud to still stand strong with my decision to not alter my appearance and embrace how God made me.”
In the age of paparazzi nicknames, Ravi has acquired one she finds both amusing and flattering: Chandrika Kardashian. The comparison emerged around the same time she became the first Indian woman associated with Kim Kardashian’s brand SKIMS. “It’s very flattering, I’ll take it!” she laughs, “She is confident, hot, and has great style!”
For Ravi, the irony isn’t lost. “Being associated with a name and a brand that is synonymous with being sexy — as an Indian woman sometimes does not feel real, especially when I was always told I was undesirable because I was so different.”
For her, being called desirable now feels like an inversion of the rejection she experienced earlier in life. She says, “Curves, long hair, strong features, and a glowing tan. Being called a sex symbol is a label I embrace with open arms. Being seen as desirable for being authentically myself in a country where I once fought to even have a seat at the table is a battle well fought. Being seen as desirable after being born in a Western country where I was told for years that I was not attractive enough to be in front of the camera means I became the representation I needed growing up of a confident, sexy Indian woman who was unapologetically herself.”
The next chapter of Ravi’s career may also be her most ambitious. She is currently co-creating and starring in the official biopic of cult screen icon Silk Smitha, popularised by Vidya Balan in The Dirty Picture [2011]. “What drew me to her story was how misunderstood she was,” she says, adding, “What she did, no one has ever been able to recreate. The command of attention she had with just a glance in your direction. The number of films she starred in less than two decades. The confidence she had to be seen as a sex symbol at a time where it was seen as taboo. The amount of turmoil she was facing in her personal life yet she was still able to have constant box office hits.” In many ways, reclaiming Silk Smitha’s story is also Ravi reclaiming her own.
Indian beauty, global appeal
. In March 2026, 25-year-old Bhavitha Mandava became the first Indian model to be named a house ambassador for Chanel
. In 2021, Nidhi Sunil became the global ambassador for L’Oreal
. In 2020, Deepika Padukone became the first Indian to star in a global Louis Vuitton campaign
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