Ankur Rathee has worked on both sides of the Indian image-making divide. The Made In Heaven actor is currently in Hasan Minhaj’s Hollywood film Best Of The Best, and his comments to News18 use that vantage point to aim a sharper critique at Hindi cinema than at Hollywood.
The immediate context is a recurring argument. When Best Of The Best cast Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia, it reignited the question of who gets to represent Indian women abroad. The debate has already drawn in names such as Mindy Kaling and Simone Ashley, who have been read by some critics as evidence of Hollywood’s narrow idea of Indian identity. Rathee pushes back on the idea that their presence is a limitation. He sees it as evidence that casting can happen without complexion being the point.
An argument about representation, not just casting
“The casting of Best Of The Best is a great example where colour wasn’t an issue,” Rathee told News18. He added that young women watching Ramakrishnan and Kedia “are going to see themselves in them” and believe they can be “seen and perceived in glamorous ways.” That visibility, in his account, is a corrective, not a stereotype.
Rathee is careful not to declare Hollywood solved. “The West has already moved beyond colourism to some extent, even though we still have a long way to go,” he said. His examples are Denzel Washington and Lupita Nyong’o, performers he says can be called gorgeous “regardless of their skin complexion.” The point is that admiration across skin tones is ordinary in some parts of cinema.
Hindi cinema gets the harder verdict
The softer Hollywood judgement sets up a blunt one for India. “There’s a dangerous amount of colourism that happens in Indian cinema, which is one of the largest cultural forces in India today,” Rathee said. When that force ties beauty directly to skin shade, he argued, it creates a “dangerous precedent” for the dusky women watching.
He is precise about causality. Cinema is not, in his view, the origin of colourism. “It’s not that cinema itself is the cause of this colourism, but it definitely propagates it.” The durable problem, he said, is a “colonial hangover” that gives fair skin its status.
The test Hindi cinema can borrow
For readers who follow Hindi cinema’s history, the critique is not new; it is the framing that is useful. Rathee converts a familiar complaint into a practical test. The contrast gives the argument its weight: he is not merely defending one industry, but comparing two and finding India wanting.
- Hollywood has moved past colourism only “to some extent,” but its casting can still be debated as a narrow stereotype.
- Best Of The Best is, for Rathee, an example of casting where complexion was not the point.
- Indian cinema matters more because it is a mass cultural force that keeps equating beauty with lighter skin.
- Cinema does not start the prejudice, in his account, but it gives it scale.
The implied guidance is for casting directors and producers: a project can either challenge the fairness-beauty link or quietly repeat it. Rathee’s intervention argues that repetition is no longer a neutral choice.
Source: News18
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