Tannishtha Chatterjee roasted for her skin colour, lashes out at comedy show

Mumbai: Bengali belle Tannishtha Chatterjee, who has earned rave reviews for her role in the critically acclaimed Leela Yadav film ‘Parched’, took offence when comedians Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh roasted her for being dark-skinned. The actress refused to sit through the entire show ‘amid such regressive, and blatantly racist content.’

The actress, who sat through the first two equally racist segments of the show, couldn’t handle it when the comedians continued ‘bullying’ her for her skin colour. Chatterjee, then took to Facebook to express her shock and disbelief.

She wrote, "…And to my utmost horror, I soon realized that the only quality they found worth roasting about in me was my skin tone… the only thing they could roast about a dark-skinned actress was of course her dark skin. They could identify me only with that. I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive (I cant call it humor), and blatantly racist content…"

The film ‘Parched’, that highlights the plight of women in rural Gujarat and how the four characters break free from the shackles of this unforgiving society, focuses on the widespread issue of deep-rooted caste bias that is still prevalent in some parts of this fast-growing nation.

Tannishtha, considering the show centred around humour, was prepared to be made fun of but not at the expense of her appearance. On Facebook, she clarified that her anger is not personal.” It has nothing to do with the show at a personal level. But it leads to a larger debate. Why does skin tone still lend itself to jokes? How is it funny to call someone dark? I don’t get it. In an India of 2016 I still have to be apologetic about my skin tone? What is this white-skin hangover? “, asked the visibly upset actress.

Here's her complete post: