Bipasha Basu needs no introduction. From her bold choice of movies to her sultry sartorial picks, everything about the actress is iconic in the Hindi film industry. With her debut film, Ajnabee (2001), she got the much-needed limelight in Bollywood. However, even after being a head-turner, she was never considered beautiful by many because of her dark skin tone. Moreover, Bipasha often used to lead the headlines for her sizzling chemistry with model-turned-actor, John Abraham.
Once known as the hottest couple in B-town, they were in a steady relationship for ten long years before an ugly separation. They had met for the first time on the sets of Jism in 2003. Though the couple is separated, their chemistry will be forever hailed for the song, Jadu Hai Nasha Hai. When Bipasha used to get trolled for her dusky skin, her then-boyfriend, John Abraham, was also the face of fairness cream, which made people question their relationship.
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In 2020, Bipasha Basu had finally taken to her IG handle and lauded the big brand, Fair & Lovely for dropping the word ‘fair’ from their logo. She also opened up about how she used to get body-shamed by her family since childhood. From drawing comparisons to tainting on her skin tone, Bipasha had faced a lot. In her words:
“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.”
On the same note, she had mentioned how people used to refer to her as a dusky beauty from Kolkata even after winning a beauty pageant. The actress remained confused for a long time about why people used the adjective ‘dusky’ in the headlines to write about her. She had penned:
“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 ???”
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Bipasha Basu has always been proud of her dark skin tone. On the other hand, while dating her, John Abraham was once endorsing a fairness cream for men and he was called out for the same. In an old interview with Komal Nahata, the actor was asked as his girlfriend was a dusky beauty and they had plans to get married, then how his association with a fairness advertisement aligned with their relationship. Answering this, John had said:
“See, it is a very valid question. When the term fairness came up, I was a little worried and I spoke to (the fairness cream brand). If you look at the ad, through the ad fairness ka naam nahi liya hai (not used the word). It says fairness that is guaranteed, so I said no, let’s make it results that is guaranteed”
To save himself from the controversial question, John had given one more logic behind endorsing a fairness cream. He had said that in India, people want to remove the blemishes from their skin, and this is what they call fairness. In his words:
“The other thing is that, in India, you’ll be shocked at this because this is according to a market survey, fairness is a term which is colloquially used for removing blemishes. Removing the dark spots (on your face) is technically fairness. That’s what the term fairness means in India. The idea of this fairness cream was to remove these blemishes to make them two tones lighter, and we specifically maintained it in the ad as well.”
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In a country where the majority of the population is dark skin toned, fairness creams often become the highest-selling product. But many people also criticise such humongous brands for selling emotions and associating fairness with success, job and marriage. In the same conversation, John agreed that he did feel guilty for being a part of a fairness advertisement and had stated:
“Now, at the end of the day, we’re a fairness cream so we’re a guilty party. But we made sure that we don’t use it as an emotional quotient that if you become fair you’d get a girl.”
On the personal front, Bipasha Basu is married to Karan Singh Grover, and John Abraham is married to Priya Runchal.
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