Akshay Kumar’s ‘Saugandh’ co-star Shanthipriya reveals he made fun of her dark skin tone

Actress Shanthipriya who appeared with Akshay Kumar in the movie ‘Saugandh’ revealed in an interview to NBT that she faced rejection in the film industry because of her skin tone. Same happened with her sister Bhanupriya who too quit films because the industry did not even accept her for her skin colour.

Recalling about the old days, she said, “Today, I am proud of myself but earlier I used to be humiliated in front of the entire crew. I was told that my makeup would not match with the hero and both of us looked different. Then the entire process would be redone. It was very embarrassing. Every day before going to shoot I would get scared as to how people would react to seeing me. There also came a time when I used to spend more time hiding my skin colour rather than improvising on the script or other things.”

The actress further revealed that Akshay Kumar had once made fun of her skin tone. She said, “My role in the film ‘Ikke Pe Ikka’ was of a modern girl and the script demanded that I had to wear a short dress. I used to wear skin-coloured stockings and once while shooting, Akshay joked about my knees looking darker than usual. He repeatedly said that there were blood clots in my knees and all the actors and other members of the crew had a good laugh.”

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Shanthipriya broke down talking about the incident as it had left a deep impression on her mind. She added, “Akshay is my good friend and I am not complaining here, but I definitely want to tell you that people have to understand how a joke made about someone’s colour can hurt him/her.”

Akshay is yet to respond to this.

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