Even today, the Indian film industry has an uncomfortable habit of employing skin-darkening make-up to actors’ on screen. Employing blackface or brownface not only makes it more difficult for dark-skinned actors to get cast in roles, it perpetuates negative stereotypes in a country where discrimination based on skin colour is deeply rooted in society.
Stereotypes can be traced back to the archaic Indian caste system where darker skin is associated with being from a disadvantaged groups. Such stereotypes continue to persist today: darker skinned characters in Bollywood films still tend to be from poor backgrounds, for instance.
While you’d think that most actors would decline roles that perpetuate the offensive practice, some didn’t – like these five.
Hrithik Roshan
The beloved star – who rose to fame through superhero franchise Krrish – donned brownface in not just one film, but three. He played a slum dweller in Agneepath (2012), an ancient Indus Valley figure in Mohenjo Daro (2016) and a Bihari mathematician in Super 30 (2019).The latter caused a stir after the trailer dropped, when Twitter netizens slammed Roshan’s brownface and accent as unrealistic. One user said, “It is as cringy as a white person playing a black [person] in American movies. Why can’t you find someone of the same complexion?”
Ranveer Singh
Singh played Murad, an aspiring rapper from the Mumbai slums, in the 2019 box office hit Gully Boy. Despite the film’s popularity, critics were quick to point out that Singh’s brownface had no relevance to his character. It appeared as “some misguided effort to make [him] fit for the role”, wrote Laetitia Bruce Warjri, an associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), in an op-ed on iDiva.com.
Bhumi Pednekar
In 2019, the 31-year-old actress caused controversy after posting a promotional picture for her film Bala on Twitter, showing herself painted brown. The movie is a satirical comedy that comments on colourism, among other issues, with Pednekar’s character learning to love her dark skin despite the discrimination she faces. Oh, the irony.
Audiences yet again turned to Twitter to criticise the filmmakers, with one user exclaiming, “Do we not have dark-skinned actors in Bollywood?” Pednekar’s response, unfortunately, was to defend her casting choice. “Many of these opinions set me thinking that maybe these people are right, but lot of it is also crap. So I flush a lot of unwanted opinions down the toilet,” she told Firstpost.com.
Alia Bhatt
The actress – who is of German, Gujarati and Kashmiri descent – played a dark-skinned migrant farmer in Udta Punjab (2016). While the film was praised for its social messages, fans and critics alike felt disappointed by the need to cast a big Bollywood star to “carry the film” instead of resorting to a lesser-known thespian with the right complexion.
In an op-ed for Mashable India, writer Jinal Bhatt took a jab at the brownface phenomenon, pleading Bollywood to “stop equating skin colour with socio-economic statuses, because that is a flawed generalisation that we should be curbing, not perpetuating”.
Sunil Dutt
Brownfacing has been present in Bollywood movies ever since the 1950s. In one well-known example, screen legend Sunil Dutt appeared shades darker while playing Birju, an angry farmer turned bandit, in the classic Mother India (1957). “This is why youngsters appearing for interviews use fairness creams, because somehow they believe fair skin colour represents value. There is not much outrage because people are used to this discrimination,” sociologist Sanjay Srivastava told the Press Trust of India.
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