So Taapsee Pannu, who rose to success and became a known name in Bollywood after the ultra successful film Pink, is in the news again.
This time the reason is not her upcoming film, instead it is about how Taapsee, refused to attend an event because she found out that the main sponsors of the event would a fairness cream brand.
See the entire thing is pretty simple, Taapsee was to attend an event in Jaipur, but she backed out at literally the last minute, because she found out that one of the main sponsors of the event was to be a fairness cream brand.
And that she would probably have to endorse or if not that, then definitely pose with the brand in the background.
All this, according to certain reports made her extremely uncomfortable as she does not want to propagate or promote fairness in any way and so Pannu felt that the best recourse would be to back out of the event.
Not The First, Taapsee Pannu, Not The First
But did we forget that a couple of years back, Kangana Ranaut too had refused to endorse a fairness cream brand and it was all over the news.
During a time when literally every second person including male actors too are falling over each other, to promote such brands, Kangana sort of broke away from the mould and said no to an endorsement deal.
Now Taapsee too has followed it up and laid the ground for what I wish would be the ultimate downfall of all such fairness cream brands.
Because no matter what you, how many different ways you might package, or try to empower women, the bottom line is that each and every fairness cream ad seems to just cement the fact that fair skinned women are more capable to succeed and god forbid you are dark skinned, then you must do everything in your power to change that.
This step by upcoming actresses who are gaining attention in Bollywood and are praised all around for their work, is sure good to see.
We have definitely had enough with these brands and it will only be through such steps, small though they may seem, that these brands will slowly lose their standing.
But God, I Hope This Doesn’t Turn Into A ‘Thing’!
The only thing that I wish this wouldn’t turn into is it being a ‘thing’ like the ‘awar wapsi’ and so many others, where a few people, emboldened by a couple famous people ahead of them, also start doing the same thing.
That the only reason an actress is refusing to endorse a fairness cream brand would in the hopes that this news will make the front cover, or let us be realistic, the second page too would be good.
I would dearly wish that actors realize that what they endorse does impact the common public’s life, and it does, to a certain extent, affect what choices we make.
Signing off I would just like to say that, this move by Taapsee Pannu is for sure good and speaks towards a change we want, but this should further reinstate in actors on what products and brands they are endorsing and what the consequences of it can be.
Image Credits: Google Images
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2013/10/get/
http://edtimes.in/2014/02/fair-fair/
http://edtimes.in/2016/08/nonsense-celebs-endorse-in-the-name-of-ads-now-to-be-penalised-for-being-misleading/
