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.