Anu Aggarwal recalls walking out of project as they tried to make her look fair: I stood up for myself

Anu Aggarwal has spoken about how she dealt with a situation when people tried to apply ‘fair makeup’ on her. In a new interview, Anu recalled that in 1998 she had ‘walked out of a modelling assignment’. The former actor also said that the ‘white skin complex’ started in India after the British came here. (Also Read | Anu Aggarwal says her need for love is fulfilled in different way: ‘It’s not sex’)

Anu spoke about self-belief and self-love. She said she didn’t explain ‘things to people’. She revealed that there were so many things that were ‘not considered acceptable’ about her.

In an interview with Bollywood Life, Anu said, “You see the women in warrior avatar from states like Rajasthan, lot of them were dusky. Colourism was never an issue. The white skin complex came with the British. It is 250 years old. It never became an issue for more. I was like if you like me you take me or let it be. In 1988, I walked out of a modelling assignment as they began using fair makeup on my face. I walked out with my handbag.”

She also added, “I stood up for who I am. I never blamed anyone. End of the day you need to have self-belief which is the path to self love. I have walked out of thing. It did not give me a complex nor did I explain things to people. There were so many things that were not considered acceptable about me.”

Anu appeared in the Doordarshan serial Isi Bahane in 1988. She made her Bollywood debut with the blockbuster Aashiqui in 1990. It also starred Rahul Roy and Deepak Tijori. The film was a huge hit at the box office. Its sequel, titled Aashiqui 2, starred Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor and released in 2013.

She has been part of several films such as Ghazab Tamasha (1992), Thiruda Thiruda, Khal-Naaikaa and King Uncle (1993), Janam Kundli (1995), and Return of Jewel Thief (1996).

Recently in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Anu recalled how after Aashiqui thousands surrounded her car and started banging on it at Mumbai’s Marine Drive in 1991.

She had said, “They started banging my car, my windows shouting, ‘Anu, Anu’. There was no driver, I was driving the car. I was thinking, ‘They will break my car, pull me out.’ I’m a fearless child, first time in my life I experienced fear. Thousands of people beating my car, screaming ‘Anu’. Unka haath mere pe pad jaata toh pata nahi kya hota mera (Had they got hold of me, what would have happened to me). That kind of madness.”