We don’t usually believe in doppelgangers but hey, this one made us scratch our heads in surprise.
Introducing the Indian Rihanna, we present model Renee Kujur from the state of Chhattisgarh who has taken social media by storm because of her uncanny resemblance with the famous Barbados pop star.
Renee And Her Past:
Hailing from the city of Bagicha, Chhattisgarh, Renee has recently opened up about her modeling career and has further talked about her being labeled as someone who was dark and unattractive in her early career, to now being labeled as the Indian Rihanna.
Her statements serve as a reminder of the deep-rooted insecurities within us regarding people with a dark complexion, something which we’ll discuss in the latter half of this article.
Talking about Renee, she has made it clear in her interview with Hindustan Times (sourced) that she has long been associated with words like “kaali” (black skinned) in her youth in order to ridicule her relatively dark complexion.
She further revealed that various modeling agencies tried their best to lighten her skin tone via make-up and Photoshop-based editing, since they believed that having a dark skin wouldn’t help her survive in the modeling world.
Related: India Has Double Standards When It Comes To The Racism It Shows To African Community
The New Wave Of Confidence And Change:
But hey, Renee wasn’t one to give up and as time passed, the Rihanna comparisons were inevitable and her friends started to refer to her as Indian Rihanna.
She admittedly laughed off the comparisons initially, but it was only a matter of time that the comparisons fueled further and Renee gained national attention for her striking resemblance to the singer.
Renee now resides in Malviya Nagar area, New Delhi and has further talked about how she’s happy being a part of the change where unconventional beauty standards are being brought to the fore and having a fair complexion isn’t the only paramount trait that one needs to have in the modeling industry.
“Sundar ladki ka makeup toh koi bhi kar sakta hai. The real challenge is to make a dark girl look good and I have done it.”
She has further highlighted how being dark-skinned is considered unattractive rather than something which is extremely normal, and how make-up experts have made her feel about it by saying that the real challenge is to do makeup on someone who is dark skinned and make them look good.
Even then, Renee’s confidence wasn’t deterred and she continued her modeling career, eventually raking in more exposure and opportunities.
Will We Ever Change As A Society?
It has been rightly said: “Indians are the white people of the brown people”, which goes ahead and further proves with Renee’s example as to how we’ll always be skeptical about dark skin being beautiful regardless of us being a population of predominantly brown people.
Be that as it may, Renee Kujur is doing great out there and we hope her example inspires a million others. She’s bad, bold and beautiful (and she’s not subtle about it either, as her Instagram handle is @badgirlrene, which is a play on Rihanna’s “Bad Girl Riri”).
More power to you, girl!
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Hindustan Times, Indian Women Blog + more
You’d Also Like To Read:
http://edtimes.in/2017/03/despite-being-brown-indians-indulge-in-color-bias-towards-black-people-are-we-even-sorry-about-it/
People are stupid she looks nothing like her Rihanna is way prettier and nothing compares the two totally different people get your eyes checked people