Racism in cinema: Bollywood mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all

Hrithik Roshan's yet-to-be-released "Super 30" has walked right into Bollywood'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 Bollywood 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".

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 ...