Tillotama Shome Says Director Tried To Darken Her Skin For Role In Hollywood Film

Actress Tillotama Shome said that she starred in a Hollywood film in which the director felt she was ‘too beautiful to be poor’ and tried to darken her skin. In a new interview, she opened up about beauty standards and the obsession with fair skin.

Shome told Cosmopolitan India that she was offered multiple  'maid' roles after essaying the role of a  domestic help in her debut film 'Monsoon Wedding' and grew resentful of them.

“I am grateful that the ‘Fair & Lovely’ obsession never entered our household. My parents were truly progressive, without even knowing it. After my debut in Monsoon Wedding, I became resentful of every offer that wanted me to play a maid. I did an American film in which the director tried to darken our skin further as we were looking ‘too beautiful to be poor’.”

Furthermore, she said “Also, comments like, ‘My maid is more beautiful than you’ reveal that the idea of beauty is not just a post-colonial hangover with people being obsessed with fair skin, but is also damningly class-bound and regressive. I mourn the loss of simplicity. We glorify the beauty of simplicity with annoying trends like ‘no make-up look’...when in reality, beauty is a mood. It is a gesture, a certain confidence, a certain abandon, the tilt of the neck, a full-throated laughter!”

Earlier this year, the actress riposted at a troll who said that she ‘looks like a maid’. She tweeted,

Shome has won critical acclaim for roles in films such as 'Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost',  'Shanghai', and 'A Death in the Gunj'. The actress won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics) for her performance in 'Sir'. 

She essayed the role of domestic help who aspires to become a fashion designer.