"I believed that dark skin was not pretty."
Priyanka Chopra Jonas has expressed her regret over endorsing fairness creams.
The actress made the admission in her memoir Unfinished, which is set to release on February 9, 2021.
In the past, Priyanka endorsed skin lightening creams which resulted in a lot of hostility towards her. As a result, she stopped participating in such campaigns.
In her memoir, she expressed her regret but admitted that skin lightening was normal in South Asia.
Priyanka said it was so prevalent, it made her believe that dark skin was not appealing.
She said: “[Skin lightening] was so normalised 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 previously addressed the issue in 2015 when TV journalist Barkha Dutt had questioned her about it.
Priyanka recalled: “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.”
Her book also chronicles Priyanka’s childhood, the racism she faced as a student in the United States and the challenges she faced while making a career in Hollywood and Bollywood.
On the work front, Priyanka Chopra last appeared in the Netflix film The White Tiger, which has received positive reviews.
She said:
“The White Tiger was something that I was craving. I’m very nascent in my work in the US.”
“I’ve just started working, with Quantico and I’m filming a few movies right now.
“But I’m really looking for a trajectory where I have the ability to play various characters and genres and not be bogged down or put into a box or a stereotype of what I can do. That was my career in India.
“Pinky is a product of modern, urban India that is in touch with the world.
“It’s educated, understands the opportunity, rights and trajectories. That is what the movie is about.”
She also finished filming her scenes for The Matrix 4. Priyanka revealed it was the first film she shot after lockdown and said she never felt safer.
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