Suganth M (BOMBAY TIMES; July 8, 2020)

From learning to cook traditional dishes to hearing a great number of scripts, Tamannaah Bhatia has managed to keep herself busy during the Coronavirus lockdown. But the actress also found herself in the middle of controversies during this time, one of which was due to her social media post, which was trolled for being insensitive towards the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. In a chat with us, Tamannaah talks about her intentions behind her post and why she doesn’t consider the colour of skin to be a determinant of one’s beauty. Excerpts...

You had recently put up an #AllLivesMatter post on social media and people had criticised you that it was not what the #BlackLivesMatter campaign is all about. Was there a miscommunication?
I feel people haven’t read my caption completely. Whatever was happening around me led me to put up a post and I artistically put it out the way I thought was appropriate. It was not just what was happening (in one place). I feel that my opinion was taken into some other zone. Which is fine, that didn’t deter me from giving my opinion anyway. I made the point I wanted to make, I can’t clarify it to everyone who has an opinion on my opinion.

People are speaking out against fairness being considered a beauty criterion. What do you have to say about this?
Of course, it is definitely not a criterion for beauty. I started my career with a commercial for a fairness cream. I was a 15-year-old kid and a model. Those pictures were dug out after my post and put out all over internet, and they were kind of trying to show that I am not sensitive about this topic. Beauty has nothing to do with colour. Skin colour is not the barometer for anything.