Dusky Actresses in Bollywood: Bollywood has been fixated on fair skin for years, and in 2025, not much is different. Although there is protestation about increasing diversity and progressiveness, the industry still predominantly features fair-skinned, tall women as protagonists in mainstream films. Dusky-skinned actresses are still underrepresentation, usually relegated to token characters or narratives that “require” them, and even then, those roles are often taken by fair-skinned actresses, who are artificially tan for the role.
A current case in point is Laapataa Ladies, where actress Pratibha Ranta; although talented and engaging was visibly darkened to suit the role. Although her performance received acclaim, it raised the question: Why not employ someone who naturally suits the skin color the role calls for?
This isn’t about not liking fair-skinned actresses. They are many of them excellent at their jobs. But the consistency in looks has been conspicuous. It’s not about colour; it’s about the way Bollywood continues to define beauty in a narrow frame. Women of medium skin like Deepika Padukone or Suhana Khan are usually held up as “dusky” representation-when actually, they aren’t even remotely close. Even they, like most mainstream actresses, are made up and lit to look lighter on screen.
More disturbingly, when dark actresses actually do crop up, they are often from powerful backgrounds or film dynasties. Chances of a dark-skinned outsider finally breaking into starring roles are minimal to zero. It is reflective of not just Bollywood’s ideologically deep-seated colourism but even its structural elitism.
This isn’t only an Indian issue. Latin American women in Hollywood have the same problem, where international success comes to those who “make it” and are typically the light-skinned women of their nation. In most locations, lighter skin continues to translate to greater opportunity, and the entertainment world reflects that prejudice shamelessly.
Traditionally, Bollywood has always shown a bias towards fairer heroines. Women from ethnic communities with more light-skinned features have long dominated the screen since the dawn of the industry. Today, with casting further being filtered through nepotism and image control, the “ideal” Bollywood heroine appears more and more homogenous: fair, tall, slender, and conforming to a certain mould.
The absence of dusky representation no longer lurks in subtlety; it’s glaring and tiresome. True change will only arrive when the industry begins appreciating true diversity over superficial aesthetics. Until then, dusky women, and particularly outsiders, will keep discovering Bollywood to be a shut door.
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