Bipasha Basu, Nandita Das, Richa Chadha praise ‘HUL’ for dropping ‘fair’ from ‘Fair and Lovely’

The discussion about the prevailing discrimination the bases of skin colour is rife these days and we have seen that the death of George Floyd in the USA. One of India’s leading multifunctional companies, Hindustan Unilever, has announced that they will remove the words Fair, Lightening and Whitening from Fair & Lovely products. Bipasha Basu and Nandita Das have given them their thumbs up.

Bipasha Basu took to her Instagram account to share her opinion on this monumental decision of the multinational, she wrote, “From the time I was growing up I heard this always,”Bonnie is darker than Soni.She is little dusky na?“Even though my mother is a dusky beauty and I look a lot like her.I never knew why that would be a discussion by distant relatives when I was a kid. Soon at 15/ 16 I started modelling and then I won the supermodel contest … all newspapers read … dusky girl from Kolkata is the winner.I wondered again why Dusky is my first adjective ??? Then I went to New York and Paris to work as a model and I realised my skin colour was exotic there and I got more work and attention because of it. Another discovery of mine:)” She added, “All this needs to stop. This wrong dream that we are selling … that only fair is lovely and beautiful when the majority of the country is brown skinned. It’s a deep rooted stigma.It’s a mammoth step from the brand… and other brands should follow in the same footsteps soon? (sic).”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB4iGuCjjlE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Nandita Das said, “In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of social wrongs have found a surprisingly sympathetic audience. The announcement today by Hindustan Unilever that they will remove the words ‘fairness’, ‘whitening and ‘lightening’ from their line of products, is something I don’t think anyone saw coming. Even though it is more symbolic (after all they have not discontinued the product, just changed the messaging), it is still a big step forward. Many brands spend hundreds of crores of rupees to spread the absurd message of fair being lovely in a largely dark country. So, when a market leader steps in, at the very least, it will certainly lead to an even wider debate.”

She added, “The world is ridden with so many forms f discrimination – n the basis of religion, caste, gender, sexuality, language and, of course, skin colour. A given identity, that one is born with, has become the most defining factor. But increasingly, it is being challenged, and thankfully, cannot be ignored.”

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Abhay Deol also took to his social media page to talk about this. Have a look:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB4mOUdpRLU/

Richa Chadha was also all praise for the word ‘fair’ being dropped as she took to her Instagram handle to celebrate it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB4-puOjv4P/?

Well, we hope that this movement is adopted more and more in society to eventually eradicate discrimination.

Also Read: When Kareena Kapoor called Bipasha Basu a ‘kaali billi’ and slapped her