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Just Couldn't Do It: Avika Gor Refuses to Endorse Fairness Brands

Bollywood celebrities received flak last year for endorsing fairness products.

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Celebrities
2 min read
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Avika Gor, of Balika Vadhu fame, revealed that she rejected three endorsement deals from fairness cream brands. She added that society can't idolise one colour and that 'trend' needs to change.

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"The positioning that beauty creams have created over a period of time is that fairness is equivalent to beauty and success and that it gives us confidence. However, that is not true at all. Our confidence has to come from our work ethic and knowledge," Avika said to Pinkvilla.

"We as a society cannot idolize one colour and make all the others feel lesser than. There has to be some change in this trend. I'm blessed to be in a position to not have to worry about losing out on money when it's serving the large need of the society of equality. So, I just couldn't do it."
Avika Gor to Pinkvilla
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Avika made her television debut with the show Balika Vadhi in 2008 and went on to act in several shows including Raajkumar Aaryyan and Sasural Simar Ka. She also participated in reality shows like Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5 and Khatron Ke Khiladi 9. Her latest work includes a music video for Dil Ko Mere.

Several Bollywood celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham, Yami Gautam, and Priyanka Chopra have endorsed fairness creams. Fairness creams have been criticised for endorsing racism for years. Especially last year, in lieu of the Black Lives Matter protests, many asked such companies to reevaluate their strategy.

Amidst the criticism Hindustan Unilever Limited that changed their branding nomenclature to exclude terms like 'fairness' and 'skin-lightening'. They also rebranded 'Fair & Lovely' to 'Glow & Lovely' but many claimed that it makes little difference since 'glow' and 'fair' have similar connotations.

On the plus side, Avika joins a list of celebrities including Bipasha Basu, Swara Bhaskar, Taapsee Pannu, and Nandita Das who have also refused to endorse fairness products and brands.

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