Unilever Drops 'Fair' From Fair & Lovely; Kangana Ranaut, Bipasha Basu, Richa Chadha & Other B'wood Celebs Hail Decision

The likes of Kangana Ranaut, Bipasha Basu and Richa Chadha have welcomed HUL's move to rename its flagship skin care brand.

New Delhi: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has decided to drop the word ‘Fair’ from its skin care brand ‘Fair and Lovely’ to embrace a ‘more inclusive vision of beauty’. Netizens have hailed the progressive decision taken by the company on social media. Bollywood celebs including Bipasha Basu, Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha and Abhay Deol have also welcomed the move. Bipasha Basu supported the removal of the word ‘Fair’ from the skin care brand and penned a strong post on Instagram. The ‘Race’ actress talked about how the word ‘dusky’ has been used as an adjective for her since childhood. She lauded HUL’s decision and said that other brands should follow the company’s footsteps. Bipasha also revealed that she received several skin care endorsements in the last 18 years but she chose to stick to her principles and refused the offers. She wrote, “All this needs to stop. This wrong dream that we are selling ... that only fair is lovely and beautiful when the majority of the country is brown skinned. It’s a deep rooted stigma. It’s a mammoth step from the brand... and other brands should follow in the same footsteps soon.” Check out her full post!

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From the time I was growing up I heard this always,”Bonnie is darker than Soni.She is little dusky na?“Even though my mother is a dusky beauty and I look a lot like her.I never knew why that would be a discussion by distant relatives when I was a kid. Soon at 15/ 16 I started modelling and then I won the supermodel contest ... all newspapers read ... dusky girl from Kolkata is the winner.I wondered again why Dusky is my first adjective ??? Then I went to New York and Paris to work as a model and I realised my skin colour was exotic there and I got more work and attention because of it. Another discovery of mine:) Once I came back into India and film offers started... and finally I did my first film and from an absolute Ajnabee to Hindi film industry ...I suddenly was accepted and loved. But the adjective stayed which I started liking and loving by then.DUSKY girl wows the audiences in her debut film. In most of my articles for all the work I did,my duskiness seemed to be the main discussion.. it attributed to my sex appeal apparently.And sexy in Bollywood started getting accepted widely.I never really understood this... To me sexy is the personality not just the colour of your skin...why my skin colour only sets me apart from the conventional actresses at that time.But that’s the way it was.I didn’t really see much of difference but I guess people did.There was a strong mindset of Beauty and how an actress should look and behave.I was DIFFERENT as it was pointed out. Didn’t really stop me from being and doing all that I loved. Well you see I was confident and proud of who I was from childhood.My skin colour didn’t define me ... even though I love it and wouldn’t want it to be any different ever. Many skin care endorsements with loads of money was offered to me in the last 18 years ( some were very tempting)... but I stuck to my principle always. All this needs to stop. This wrong dream that we are selling ... that only fair is lovely and beautiful when the majority of the country is brown skinned. It’s a deep rooted stigma. It’s a mammoth step from the brand... and other brands should follow in the same footsteps soon????

A post shared by bipashabasusinghgrover (@bipashabasu) on Jun 25, 2020 at 8:32pm PDT

Kangana Ranaut, who has refused several skin whitening and lightening endorsements, is also delighted with the move. "It has been a long and sometimes a very lonely battle but results only happen when the whole nation participates in the movement," the 'Panga' actress' team tweeted on her behalf.

Richa Chadha posted a celebrating message on her Instagram handle and flaunted her 'not fair but lovely' print top. "NOT FAIR BUT LOVELY, I had gotten this printed on a T shirt back in 2015. Yesterday, the brand @fairandlovely_id and I were finally in agreement! Yesterday, they dropped the word FAIR from their product name... Before you attack the brand for only paying ‘lip service’, please remember, it takes many generations for ideas to change. There is demand and hence there is supply...We have been told since we were children, that fairness is the only definition of beauty! It is also another unfortunate byproduct of colonialism and casteism! But it’s 2020, and a lot of ** is getting dismantled !," the 'Gangs Of Wasseypur' actress wrote.

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“NOT FAIR BUT LOVELY”, I had gotten this printed on a T shirt back in 2015. Yesterday, the brand @fairandlovely_id and I were finally in agreement! ????????????❤️Yesterday, they dropped the word FAIR from their product name... Before you attack the brand for only paying ‘lip service’, please remember, it takes many generations for ideas to change. There is demand and hence there is supply...We have been told since we were children, that fairness is the only definition of beauty! It is also another unfortunate byproduct of colonialism and casteism! But it’s 2020, and a lot of BS is getting dismantled ! It took me many years of unlearning to gain confidence and start LOVING my complexion! Der aye durust aye, I say. I welcome this decision by the brand... and it’s not easy... brands have a thousand meetings before they change even the FONT in their logo... I hope slowly and steadily mindsets change... we must continuously and without any influence of the West, define our own idea of beauty. Beauty must be inclusive! Bravo @fairandlovely_id ???????? . . . मुझे लगता है कि भारत की तरह,बहुत से ऐसे देश हैं जहाँ अंग्रेज़ों ने राज किया।अक्सर ऐसे देशों में ग़ुलामी एक मानसिक रूप भी धारण कर लेती है।हमें लगने लगता है की हमारा रंग, हमारी भाषा, हमारा खाना अच्छा नहीं है... और यही अंग्रेज़ हमें लगातार बताते भी थे... ये दुर्भाग्यवश है की हम अपनी ही चीज़ों को हीन, (inferior) समझकर उन्हें बदलने की कोशिश करते हैं... बचपन से ये बताया जाता है कि गोरा रंग ही ख़ूबसूरत है ! पहले तो फ़िल्मों में गाने भी यू ही बनते थे जैसे कि ... “ हम काले हैं तो क्या हुआ दिल वालें हैं”... क्या ऐसा गाना आज की डेट में बन सकता है? सब चीज़ों को बदलने में समय लगता है... हमें अपने रंग पर गर्व होना चाहिए! . . . #NotFairButLovely #RacismIsAVirus #RichaChadha #richareccomends #Truth #lockdown #selfhate #postcolonial #actorslife #fairandlovely

A post shared by Richa Chadha (@therichachadha) on Jun 26, 2020 at 12:41am PDT

Abhay Deol,who recently slammed the lobbying culture in Bollywood, also hailed HUL's decision to drop the word 'Fair' from its flagship skin care brand. He wrote, "It took a world backlash and the #blacklivesmatter movement to give us a push in this direction. But make no mistake, all of you who have been vocal about the need for a cultural shift in regard to the sale and endorsement of fairness creams in our country contributed to this victory. We have a long way to go in breaking our conditioning of what constitutes for beauty, but this is a small step in the right direction. It’s the starting point to a long road ahead. What a beautiful beginning! #nomorefairandlovely #peoplepower."

Shah Rukh Khan's daughter Suhana Khan also lauded the historic decision. She shared a note on her Instagram story, which read: "Hindustan Unilever announced that it would rebrand its skin -lightening cream ''Fair and Lovely'' and drop the word ''Fair'' from the product. It has also committed that it will remove all suggestions that success is linked to skin tone or colour in its communication." (Source- Instagram) Stay tuned for more updates! (With inputs from IANS)