Mahira Khan says she has never endorsed fairness products, Kubbra Sait champions Kangana Ranaut

Mahira Khan revealed she has never endorsed fairness products in her career when asked about it on Twitter.

Desi actors have been facing a lot of flak online for their ‘hypocrisy’ in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement while endorsing fairness products back home. Celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra, Disha Patani and Sonam Kapoor have all been criticised for their comments on social media.

Mahira Khan and Kangana Ranaut refused to work for fairness products brands.

Recently, a journalist asked in a tweet to name the Indian or Pakistani actors who have never endorsed skin lightening products in their careers. Pakistani actor Mahira Khan said she was one of the few. “Been refusing ever since I was a VJ till now. Never endorsed a skin lightening product,” she wrote in a tweet.

October actor Banita Sandhu said she had made it clear to her agents that she would never endorse for such products. “When I first signed to an agency in India, they asked if there was anything I was against endorsing, such as alcohol or tobacco. I told them, skin lightening products; since then, they’ve never sent any such endorsement offer my way,” she wrote in a tweet.

Sacred Games actor Kubbra Sait commented, “Kangana I think.” Kangana has indeed never appeared in advertisements for any fairness brands and has also often criticised the industry. “Ever since I was a kid, I have never understood the concept of fairness. Especially, in such a case, as a celebrity, what kind of an example would I be setting for younger people? I have no regrets about turning this offer down. As a public figure, I have responsibilities,” she had once said.

On Friday, actor Abhay Deol also made an Instagram post about the popularity of fairness creams in India. “Do you think Indian celebrities will stop endorsing fairness creams now,” he shared, adding data about search trends. “Overall analysis. Fairness creams in India have evolved over the years, from being fairness creams to now using euphemisms like ‘skin brightening/ whitening’, or ‘lightening creams’. Most brands no longer want to be associated directly with being termed as ‘fairness creams’. So now we have brands selling ‘HD glow’, ‘White beauty’, ‘white glow’, ‘fine fairness’, and so on,” he wrote.

Commenting on his post, Kubbra wrote, “Thank You @abhaydeol for this post. I can speak for me, when the brand Olay approached me to be a part of their campaign, I was excited. When I saw the list of products, we spoke amongst ourselves. Masaba, Kusha Kapila and I. We spoke to the brand as one team and refused to be tagged with the products that had anything related to brightening/ lightening of the skin. Even the digital cover we did was not a retouched photograph.”

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