India’s skin-whitening creams highlight a complex over darker complexions

Products target darker-skinned consumers in a society where marriage websites and some Bollywood stars help to promote the idea that lighter means better

She is sitting in Coffee Day, a favourite spot for Mumbai high school students. “You OK, Nina?”, her friends ask as they arrive. They sit down laughing and order iced coffee and doughnuts. Next door, the Eros cinema is showing R... Rajkumar. Its stars, Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, are good-looking, happy and in love. Both are fair-skinned.

Nina is darker, not really black. “One of my aunts keeps offering to apply whitening lotion,” she says.

Related: India's unfair obsession with lighter skin

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