Bipasha Basu Schools a Troll Who Accuses Her of Doing ‘Lightening Therapy’ to Get a Fairer Skin

Bipasha Basu posted about Unilever's remarkable decision of removing 'fair' from the name of 'Fair & Lovely' cream. However, an Instagram user commented that she had herself taken a skin-lightening therapy.

Actor Bipasha Basu is one of the Bollywood celebrities who celebrated Unilever’s decision of dropping ‘fair’ from ‘Fair & Lovely’ to make an inclusive brand appeal. The actor took to Instagram to share the screenshot of an article that talked about the news. In the caption of her post, Bipasha described her struggle being a dark-skinned woman in India and how she could never fathom people’s obsession with fair skin while growing up. She also mentioned how ‘dusky’ was always used as an adjective before her name no matter whatever she achieved in life. However, while she was being praised for raising her voice against the colour-based oppression, an Instagram user alleged in the comments of her post that she had taken skin lightening and whitening treatment to have a fairer skin tone. Now, this irked Bipasha.

The actor didn’t let the social media user have her own way. Bipasha replied to the user who went by the name sparkle.star1 and asked her to rise above hate. The actor lashed out at the user for spreading lies about her life without knowing anything about her. She mentioned that she has only taken two facials all her life because of sensitive skin so there can’t be a question of using any artificial method to lighten her skin.

The user commented: “You did Whiting therapy though bcs opinion matters for you!!you are beutiful” (sic). Bipasha replied by saying, “Really??? Thank you for telling me that. I have super sensitive skin and allergies. Have done 2 facials in my entire life because of it. But according to you I have done some lightening therapy???!!!! It’s amazing how an absolute stranger knows what I have done. Please rise above all this 🙏” (sic) Check out the full post here:

 

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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:) Once I came back into India and film offers started… and finally I did my first film and from an absolute Ajnabee to Hindi film industry …I suddenly was accepted and loved. But the adjective stayed which I started liking and loving by then.DUSKY girl wows the audiences in her debut film. In most of my articles for all the work I did,my duskiness seemed to be the main discussion.. it attributed to my sex appeal apparently.And sexy in Bollywood started getting accepted widely.I never really understood this… To me sexy is the personality not just the colour of your skin…why my skin colour only sets me apart from the conventional actresses at that time.But that’s the way it was.I didn’t really see much of difference but I guess people did.There was a strong mindset of Beauty and how an actress should look and behave.I was DIFFERENT as it was pointed out. Didn’t really stop me from being and doing all that I loved. Well you see I was confident and proud of who I was from childhood.My skin colour didn’t define me … even though I love it and wouldn’t want it to be any different ever. Many skin care endorsements with loads of money was offered to me in the last 18 years ( some were very tempting)… but I stuck to my principle always. 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🙏

A post shared by bipashabasusinghgrover (@bipashabasu) on Jun 25, 2020 at 8:32pm PDT

Bipasha was given the tag of ‘sex symbol’ at the beginning of her career in Bollywood and was always praised as someone who never shied away from embracing her sexuality. The actor made bold appearances in movies like Jism, Raaz, Ajnabee, and Dhoom 2 among others.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Hindustan Unilever made an official statement about the removal of ‘fair’ from the name of their popular fairness product ‘Fair & Lovely’ in India. The statement read, “We’re committed to a skin care portfolio that’s inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty. That’s why we’re removing the words ‘fairness’, ‘whitening’ & ‘lightening’ from products, and changing the Fair & Lovely brand name.” The decision came after years of criticism that the brand faced for endorsing a product on the basis of white-skin prejudice in a country like India where most people are known to have dark skin.