‘I fell for equity on lighter skin’

Priyanka recently appeared on the Ladies First Podcast hosted by Laura Brown, and spoke about falling prey to unrealistic beauty standards in her youth. More specifically, she admitted to have bought into the ‘equity on lighter skin’, reports Indian Express.

Priyanka Chopra attracted significant backlash for endorsing a fairness creams some years ago, but has since expressed regret about it. In the podcast, Priyanka said that she reached a point in her life where she simply decided to discard any pretense of being perfect.

“There were so many unrealistic beauty standards. Being ridiculously skinny was one, which I didn’t think about in my 20s, because I had a crazy metabolism at that point, as you do. But more than that, the equity on lighter skin in Asia, for sure. That’s something that I fell for. The fact that you have to be perfect, your face has to be perfect, your hair has to be perfect, you have to dress perfect, speak perfect, you have to have the right opinion on everything, you have to say the right thing. I think that part was the first (time) I kind of was like, ‘Forget it, I’m okay being messy sometimes, and it’s okay.’” she said.

According to her , it took a while for this change to come about. But now that she has accepted this as the way forward, she wants this image to spill over to her onscreen performances.

She said that she wants to ‘unzip’ the ‘glitz and glamour’ because that’s what she feels boxed in by. Priyanka said that in India, she had the good fortune of working with ‘incredible filmmakers’ and playing ‘a variety of characters.’ She said that she hopes she’s able to do similarly diverse work in Hollywood, as well. But she often finds herself inside a ‘shiny and glittery and pretty’ box. “I want to be a little messy,” she said.

Previously, she had told journalist Barkha Dutt in 2015 that she feels ‘really bad’ about appearing in advertisements for skin lightening creams. Priyanka Chopra began her career by winning the Miss World pageant in 2000. She made her acting debut with the Tamil film ‘Thamizhan’ in 2002.