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The fact that Indians favour fair skin is no secret. And this desire for fair skin manifests itself in a number of ways – the extensive market for fairness products, the positive perception of and the preference for fair-skinned people in personal and professional spheres, and even in how we depict our Gods.
But can’t our Gods be dark-skinned?
This is a question that a Chennai-based duo has dared to ask through their photo series ‘Dark is Divine’. It reimagines deities as dark-skinned individuals, and questions the preference for whiter complexion when it comes to those we worship.
For Bharadwaj Sundar, co-founder of Chennai-based production house Slingshot Productions, it began with a picture in his home.
What bothered him was that while a majority of us have much darker complexions, we prefer to worship Gods with fairer skin because we equate it with being better.
He also noticed how some of the Gods like Rama and Krishna were depicted as blue-skinned sometimes, but were never portrayed as having dark brown or black skin.
Bharadwaj began conceptualising the project in September 2017. While it was supposed to be a 12-photo series for a calendar, due to budget constraints, they decided to limit the number of photos to six.
But the seventh one came into being because, during the process of shooting, their make-up artist was moved by the concept and requested for another photo to be added. That photo became Sita with her sons, Luva and Kusha.
The photos were shot by Naresh Nil, another co-founder of Slingshot Productions. The ultimate goal they hope to achieve with ‘Dark is Divine’ is not just acceptance of the idea, but the normalisation of a dark-skinned God.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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