Actress Esha Gupta who initially made her Bollywood debut with ‘Jannat 2’ opposite Emraan Hashmi recently opened up about colourism in the industry. Esha alleged that she was singled out because of her complexion and even makeup artists tried to mask her dark complexion. HT reports her saying that she was told she’d be typecast as the ‘sexy one’ because of her appearance.
Esha divulged, “I remember, initially, when I came, there were some actors who I’ve not even worked with… But they met me and said, ‘Tu apna makeup thoda kaala karti hai, gora kiya kar (Your makeup is very dark, you should make it fairer)’, and I was like, ‘Dude, what?’”
She explains, “There were also makeup artists who’d try to make me fair always, and then they had to paint my whole body, because my body doesn’t match my face. So suddenly I’m looking like a clown. I’ve done two multi-starrers, and they told me, ‘You’re the sexy one’, because black, the skin tone that I have, which is considered black in our country, that can only be sexy or negative, and fair skin has to be the girl next door and sharif (honest).”
The actress says that she hopes things change soon.