Richa Chadha Has A Strong Message On Fair And Lovely Changing Its Name

In a remarkable move, HUL has decided to rename their popular skin care brand Fair and Lovely. As netizens celebrated the bold move, Bollywood actress Richa Chadha who has quite often questioned the society’s set beauty norms and their depiction in popular culture, especially movies, posted a celebratory message on her social media handle.

She wrote, “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 !

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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

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A post shared by Richa Chadha (@therichachadha) on Jun 10, 2020 at 8:30am PDT

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

Richa’s post comes in after many questioned if changing the brand name is enough. As the actress rightly puts it, it’s one helluva start.