As 'fairness' cream rebrands itself, Bips recalls being called 'dusky'

Bipasha Basu. Picture/Basu's Instagram account

It has been a long and gruelling battle fighting the powers that be against colourism in the country. One of the biggest 'fairness' brands have now decided to undergo a rebranding and drop the word 'fair' from its name.

A brand that once promised a radical transformation in the complexions of people who used the product, essentially a 'dark' to 'light' transformation, will undergo a complete overhaul, and we couldn't be more delighted.

Besides us, one of the many celebrities who have welcomed this change is none other than the stunning Bipasha Basu. Taking to Instagram, Bips shared an eye-opening post on how she grew up being referred to as 'dusky', even after she wowed the audience in her first few films.

She wrote, "From the time I was growing up I heard this always, "Bonnie is darker than Soni. She is a 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???"

Read the complete post here:

Bipasha Basu is absolutely correct when she says that in a country of brown-skinned people, it's a wrong thing to promote that only being fair is lovely and beautiful. She also hopes that other brands follow this step soon and rebrand themselves.

Along with Bipasha Basu, several other celebrities like Kangana Ranaut and Suhana Khan also welcomed this move by the brand.

According to a report in IANS, HUL also removed from the packaging, words such as 'fair/fairness', 'white/whitening', and 'light/lightening' that could indicate a fairness-led transformation. The cameo with two faces showing shade transformation, as well as the shade guides, were removed from the packs. The company will continue to evolve its advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India.

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