Hyderabad joined the growing, nationwide movement, Dark is Beautiful, with a very special photo-exhibition of its own that featured 50 nominees from the city.
The show, which also involved 42 photographers, is now part of a bigger campaign against “the toxic belief that a person’s worth is measured by the fairness of their skin”. Organisers say more events are scheduled to be held soon.
Nominees for Sunday’s show were from all walks of life and included well-known faces from the city — designer Archana Rao, artist Priyanka Aelay and TV artiste Jhansi.
Rahul Reddy, of Octopus Studios, who has been working on the show for a year now said, “The idea is to convince the world that beauty has nothing to do with the colour of a person’s skin.”
‘Dark is Beautiful’ has been previously supported by actress Nandita Das after the movement first began in Chennai, conceptualised by Kavitha Emmanuel, the founder-director of the NGO Women of Worth.
Fast forward to 2014 and city organisers have found encouragement in what they believe has been an “excellent response”. “We expected 150 people; 400 turned up,” says Rahul. “The digital campaign has reached 2 lakh people.”
