Bollywood’s Colorist Song Lyrics Toward Queen Bey
Photo credit: A.RICARDO | Shutterstock.com
written by Tiara Jade
The song Beyonce Sharma Jayegi from the film Khaali Peeli featuring Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday has been the source of controversy since its September 6 release. One line in particular left viewers offended. The lyrics “Tujhe dekh ke goriya, Beyonce sharma jayegi” translate to “Looking at you fair skinned lady, Beyonce would feel shy.” Social media quickly responded to the lyrics, deeming it insensitive and perpetuating Bollywood’s long-standing colorist mentality--a result of India’s history with white colonization.
“How can you think of making such a song in the recent time!? Secondly, when we all know how cinema affects the mentality of masses here, how can you think of taking it easy because it's just a song!? No, it's not just a song, it's glorifying a wrong idea,” Said Twitter user @kaithwas_sakshi.
It didn’t take the film’s director Maqbool Khan long to respond to the backlash. According to the Times of India Kahn says the lyrics in question weren’t intended to be racist by any means.
“First, without any hesitation or excuses we want to apologise to anyone offended. We assure you that the lyric in question was never intended racially. In fact, the term "goriya" has been so often and traditionally used in Indian songs to address a girl, that it didn't occur to any of us to interpret it in a literal manner…The comparison with Beyonce is simply meant to be a street-smart guy flattering a girl who is trying to impress that her dancing/performance is worth comparing to even Beyonce who we all see as the final word, the epitome of talent, beauty, performance, style and attitude. We are all huge fans, and there was never any question of disrespect."
Still, with the song out and circulating, viewers question why songwriters included such lyrics in the first place. Some Beyonce fans even tweeted apologies.
“Dear Beyonce, We are sorry for this.” @Bunny_I_
In Beyonce’s recent music video for the song Brown Skin Girl the singer included Black women as well as a dark skinned Tamil woman, Sheerah Ravidren, showing us that representation of dark skin as beautiful in Black and Brown communities is very significant.
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South Asian women of darker skin tones are often told from a young age they should avoid getting darker (avoid the sun) and should look for ways to lighten their skin. Social acceptance and romantic love are only found if they are fair-skinned. Even when we look at India who hosts the world’s largest film industry, Bollywood, the faces of the majority of models and celebrities cast in major films are often light shades of brown and in some cases almost white. Such representation in media standardizes beauty as being light skin, something that often excludes millions of brown-skinned and dark-skinned South Asian womxn.
Over the past months, the problem of colorism has come to light now more than ever. Many fans were upset after certain Bollywood stars filled their social media platforms with Black Lives Matter posts and took part in the #blackouttuesday movement. Ironically enough some of these same stars have promoted and endorsed Fair and Lovely, the infamous brand that produces skin whitening products.
Such behavior from Bollywood celebrities proves what many still fear. The level of ignorance toward how colorism goes hand-in-hand with racism is still alive within South Asian culture. How can we then dismantle colorism if various communities do not recognize colorism as a direct contributing factor to racism?
Threads on social media showed stars like Priyanka Chopra posting about #blm while promoting questionable skincare ads. Chopra has come under criticism in the past for endorsing skin lightening products. Since Fair and Lovely has come under intense scrutiny, the company has renamed and rebranded its products calling it “Glow and Lovely.” Given a revived anti-colorism movement, it’s unlikely consumers will look past the new name.
It’s unclear what the future of the song and movie will look like. However, the push to dismantle colorism is the result of something far greater. We as women of color are fed up with the glorification of European beauty standards at the expense of our own communities’ lowered self-esteem. The lack of representation in mainstream Western media is already an ongoing battle for Black and brown women. For now, we can hope the message to Bollywood and the world is loud and clear. There is no room for colorism.