Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
No Result
View All Result
OrissaPOST - Odisha Latest news, English Daily -
No Result
View All Result

Hrithik’s ‘Super 30’ sparks debate on racism in Hindi cinema

PTI
Updated: June 8th, 2019, 12:29 IST
in Entertainment
0
Hrithik is not the first actor to be hit by the 'brown face makeup syndrome' in an attempt to make him look like a commoner.

Hrithik is not the first actor to be hit by the 'brown face makeup syndrome' in an attempt to make him look like a commoner.

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on Linkedin

New Delhi: Hrithik Roshan’s yet-to-be-released ‘Super 30’ has walked right into Hindi film industry’s age-old debate on racism and class-caste stereotypes with the fair-skinned actor transitioning to tones of brown, apparently in keeping with his deglam role as a grassroots teacher from Bihar.

The ‘colour coding’ is not new in formulaic cinema with numerous examples over the decades of Hindi cinema mistaking stereotyping with realism and using various shades of brown to portray those grappling with caste and class divides — remember Sunil Dutt as the angry young farmer in ‘Mother India’ and, six decades later, Alia Bhatt as a labourer in ‘Udta Punjab’.

Also Read

Tiger Shroff sends a warning to all social media trolls

Tiger Shroff wraps shoot for ‘Baaghi 4’

13 hours ago
Kay Kay Menon

Kay Kay Menon lauds Neeraj Pandey for writing ‘well etched out’ antagonists

1 day ago

Fair-skinned actors both who were dabbed with tan makeup in an effort to be authentic.

Clearly, the passage of time made little difference to the cliche that fair equals upper class and success and dark skin denotes working class.

Sociologist Sanjay Srivastava believes the stereotype has always existed in cinema where a dark skin tone is associated with people who are on the lower rung of caste and class.

“In the west, there is ‘black face’ where white actors opt for exaggerated stereotypes but it is criticised severely there. In India, fair skin tone is aspirational while dark skin tone is associated with people who are lower on the caste and class hierarchy and popular culture just perpetuates this stereotype,” he said.

“This is why youngsters appearing for interviews use fairness creams because somehow they believe fair skin colour represents a value. There is not much outrage because people are used to this discrimination,” he added.

The conflict is back with ‘Super 30’,  a biopic on Anand Kumar, a mathematics teacher from Bihar who opened a coaching institute to help underprivileged students prepare for competitive exams, set for release July 12.

The film has been in the news for all the wrong reasons but what has upset people from the state the most is Hrithik’s fake accent and his ‘brown face’ because that’s how Bollywood thinks people from Bihar look.

Many cinema enthusiasts say the actor could have played the character without being made to look so brown.

“People need to understand that Biharis don’t live in coal mines. Most have access to soap and face wash,” a PhD student pointed out on social media.

“I like Hrithik but that brown face. So if an actor puts up a brown face makeup that automatically makes him/her poor well done Bollywood. #Super30,” another social media user wrote.

Many others agreed.

“I was excited for #Super30 initially but the trailer just gave me all the reasons to not watch it. That Bihari accent just doesn’t suit Hritik & that brown face! Mahn even the actual guy ain’t that brown,” added another critic.

If the makers are so particular to make the actor look the part, they can just as well choose another person to play the role.

In this case, director Vikas Bahl could have chosen Pankaj Tripathi, who hails from the state and plays a role in the film, point out some on social media.

“Super 30 is a movie in which Hritik Roshan is playing a teacher from Bihar…and Pankaj Tripathi is dancing,” a social media user pointed out the irony while juxtaposing Tripathi and Kumar’s faces, which bear some similarity.

Hrithik is not the first actor to be hit by the ‘brown face makeup syndrome’ in an attempt to make him look like a commoner.

Most recently, Ranveer Singh appeared shades darker than what he is in real life to represent an up and coming rapper from a Mumbai slum in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Gully Boy’.

In an interview, Zoya defended Ranveer’s tan saying that’s how the actor looked as he had come from a tropical vacation.

Then there is ‘Udta Punjab’, which had Alia playing a Bihari labourer working in the fields of Punjab. The filmmakers used the old ruse and darkened her skin tone in a bid to make her look the part.

As a mirror of society, and therefore the racism that underscores it, mainstream Hindi cinema has done this often. In many cases, a dark skin tone is not just taken to depict the working or the lower classes but also as the antithesis of the good, fair and handsome protagonist.

In the award winning ‘Fashion’, Priyanka Chopra plays a high-strung supermodel who is unable to cope with the rigours of fame and becomes an alcohol and a drug addict. But the turning point for her comes only when she wakes up to find herself next to a black man. It’s only then that she realises the horror that her life has become.

Parallel cinema, too, surrendered to this fair-dark stereotype with greats like Shabana Azmi and the late Smita Patil, both dusky, being considered most suitable for characters in films on rural and urban angst of the working classes.

“Stereotypes regarding class and caste which have been popularised through ads, TV and cinema, and about fairness being about success… most people do not find this offensive as there is no widespread condemnation in public discourse,” Srivastava said.

There are many exceptions, of course,

In ‘Pad Man’, for instance, a biopic on Arunachalam Muruganatham, a social entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu who introduced low cost sanitary pads, Akshay Kumar plays the title role with no artifice. He is as he is.

PTI

Tags: Hindi filmsHritik RoshanRACISMSuper-30
ShareTweetSendShare
Suggest A Correction

Enter your email to get our daily news in your inbox.

 

OrissaPOST epaper Sunday POST OrissaPOST epaper

Click Here: Plastic Free Odisha

#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pratyasharani Ghibela

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Matrumangal Jena

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Archit Mohapatra

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Swarit Praharaj

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Diptiranjan Biswal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Aman Kumar Barisal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Praptimayee Biswal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Smitarani Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Amritansh Mishra

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Adrita Bhattacharya

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Archana Parida

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Aishwarya Ranjan Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Mrutyunjaya Behera

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Manasa Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pitabas Tripathy

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ankita Balabantray

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Anshuman Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Keshab Chandra Rout

December 12, 2019
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Dibya Ranjan Das

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Subhajyoti Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Saishree Satyarupa

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Lopali Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Narendra Kumar

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Bijswajit Pradhan

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Adweeti Bhattacharya

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Adyasha Priyadarsani Sendha

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Spinoj Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Vandana Singh

December 12, 2019

Archives

Editorial

Toll Sucks Life

Nitin Gadkari
July 9, 2025

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari took everyone by surprise when at a function in Nagpur, where the...

Read more

Bloodline

BJP-Shiv Sena
July 8, 2025

The coming together of the Thackeray cousins – Raj Thackeray, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena...

Read more

Acknowledge Failure

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh
July 7, 2025

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh’s candid revelations about Operation Sindoor at a FICCI event ‘New...

Read more

Politics of Philosophy

AAKAR PATEL
July 6, 2025

The BJP’s constitution (Article 3) says, “Integral Humanism shall be the philosophy of the party.” The party’s membership form has...

Read more
  • Home
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Developed By Ratna Technology

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

  • News in Odia
  • Orissa POST Epaper
  • Video
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Metro
  • State
  • Odisha Special
  • National
  • International
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Entertainment
  • Horoscope
  • Careers
  • Feature
  • Today’s Pic
  • Opinion
  • Sci-Tech
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

    • News in Odia
    • Orissa POST Epaper
    • Video
    • Home
    • Trending
    • Metro
    • State
    • Odisha Special
    • National
    • International
    • Sports
    • Business
    • Editorial
    • Entertainment
    • Horoscope
    • Careers
    • Feature
    • Today’s Pic
    • Opinion
    • Sci-Tech
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Jobs

    © 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST