Prize Year
2021
Document Type
Unrestricted
Abstract
The issue of colorism is far-reaching within India and extends to its various film industries. Lesser-known to the western world is Tollywood, which encompasses Telugu and Bengali films and loosely includes films of other South Indian languages such as Tamil and Malayalam. Arguably, colorism runs much deeper in South India than North India, where Bollywood reigns, because light skin is sought after more in the South for numerous geographical and historical reasons. A deeper dive into the issue reveals that, beyond the understanding that colorism is a lucid issue in Tollywood, it affects actors and actresses differently. While Bollywood has evolved to present Indian women as more than just damsels in distress with landmark films such as Queen and Mary Kom, Tollywood is still premature in this regard. Sexism is omnipresent in the South Indian film industry, from females being oversexualized on-screen to their tenures in the industry being curtailed compared to their male counterparts. The imposition of eurocentric beauty standards also disproportionately affects women in South Indian cinema; a dark-skinned actor can be paired with an actress of a fairer complexion than him, but he can never be paired with an actress of a darker complexion. In-fact there have rarely, if ever, been dark-skinned females cast in positive lead roles (Prabhakar). The issue of colorism in South Indian films is not unilateral, and it perpetuates sexism, but the on-going conversation surrounding this topic has not resulted in significant or iterative changes in the last decade.
Recommended Citation
Penmetsa, Shriya, "Stagnant Prejudice Against Dark Skin in South Indian Cinema" (2021). Dean James E. McLeod Freshman Writing Prize. 11.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mcleod/11