Our obsession and subsequent glorification of the white skin has often been credited to the age-old “colonial burden”, a phrase we use conveniently to hide destructive stereotypes and biases. And popular culture portrayals have fed into these stereotypes more often than we think.
That’s why, when the first posters of Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro were released, this history scholar could not help but point out the hackneyed formula of having a fair actor portray the role of a woman from an ancient civilisation. And even though there isn’t any evidence of how they looked, this portrayal could be historically wrong.