A leading lady with Vitiligo? Bollywood adulting with Onir’s ‘Kuch Bheege Alfaaz’

Kuch Bheege Alfaaz might not turn out to be a revolutionary romance for Bollywood, but it has certainly made a statement with its leading lady.

By: Tatsam Mukherjee |
January 23, 2018 5:01 pm

Like most film industries around the world, Bollywood too has stuck to defined beauty standards. Which means fair skin, women in her early 20s and a very conventional aspiration to what is ‘beautiful’. However, these standards are being quashed if the trailer for director Onir’s Kuch Bheege Alfaaz are to be taken into account.

The trailer which looks like any other modern-day romance set in the age of dating apps and social media, stands out for its leading lady portrayed by Geetanjali Thapa. The actor, who previously appeared with Rajkummar Rao in Trapped, plays a woman battling insecurity around her Vitiligo patches. For the uninitiated, Vitiligo is a skin condition where patches of lighter skin appear on your body.

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Things seem to be slowly and steadily beginning to change in Bollywood’s carved-in-stone beauty standards, where we are finally ready to deal with a leading lady fighting a battle of her own. In Onir’s film we see Thapa falling in love with an RJ (played by Zain Khan Durrani) over Whatsapp shayari.

There were reports last year of how Kangana Ranaut refused a fairness cream advertisement followed by rumours of Sushant Singh Rajput turning down a whooping deal of Rs 15 crores to endorse a fairness cream – it looks like Bollywood has finally learned how to adult. We might have a long way to go before we become symbols of a ‘woke’ society, but it is at least ready to celebrate some of our more common ‘imperfections’.

Kuch Bheege Alfaaz might not turn out to be a revolutionary romance for Bollywood, but it has certainly made a statement with its leading lady. Kudos team!