Priyanka Chopra opens up about feeling 'awful' for promoting skin-whitening creams

After the success of the Netflix film 'The White Tiger' starring Rajkummar Rao and Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is all geared up for the release of her upcoming memoir 'Unfinished'. Recently, while promoting her book, the actor opened up about endorsing skin-whitening creams in India. Priyanka stopped participating in such campaigns after moving to Hollywood.

In a profile for Marie Claire, Priyanka spoke at length about the profound guilt she has about promoting skin-whitening creams early on, a topic that she will also explore in her upcoming memoir, 'Unfinished'.

 

 

 

 

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Priyanka said, "[Skin lightening] was so normalized in South Asia; it’s such a large industry that everyone was doing it. In fact, doing it is still a check [mark] when you are a female actor, but it’s awful. And it was awful for me, for a little girl who used to put talcum-powder cream on my face because I believed that dark skin was not pretty."

She had earlier spoken about deciding to not endorse such products in a 2015 interview with a journalist. She had said, "I felt really bad about it, that’s why I stopped doing it. All my cousins are gora-chitta (fair) I was the one who turned out dusky because my dad is dusky. Just for fun, my Punjabi family would call me 'kaali, kaali, kaali'. At 13, I wanted to put fairness creams and wanted my complexion changed." 

 

 

 

 

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For the uninformed, 'Unfinished' will be released on February 9. The book follows the journey of Priyanka's childhood, facing racism during her teenage years in the US, winning Miss India and Miss World, and the challenges she faced while piloting a career in Bollywood and Hollywood.