Tanvi Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; December 15, 2018)

While her fans call her the milky beauty of South, the actress is not as proud of this title. So much so, that the Baahubali actress has decided to adopt a warmer skin tone for two of her future projects. For her upcoming movies Devi 2 and Chiranjeevi’s Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, the actress has undergone close to 50 look tests to perfect her dusky look. While the suggestion to go few shades darker was made by the producers of her films, Tamannaah is only too happy to embrace the idea. She says, “I don’t appreciate people who discriminate on the basis of colour. I was born on the fairer side, but I’ve always been fascinated by dusky and dark tones. So, when the makers of my films asked me to go a few shades darker, I didn’t think twice. I am not doing anything extraordinary, but I want to break cinematic notions about outwardly appearances.”

Tamannaah adds, “I feel that to a great extent, the industry is fixated with fair skin and that needs to change. It’s high time the film industry stopped treating fair skin as a parameter of beauty. You could be the fairest of them all, but if you have a wicked soul, you aren’t beautiful at all. So, skin colour doesn’t define a person’s beauty. We need to rise beyond these concepts and definitions. However, in recent times producers and directors have become more forthcoming.”

Ask her about the dusky look in her upcoming films, and she replies, “Given a chance, I would love to go five shades darker for all my films. I believe that my performance should speak, not what I’m wearing or how I’m looking on screen. Holding fair skin as a standard of ideal beauty is dangerous.”