Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Might 'Take Action' Over Elle India Cover: Report (PHOTOS)

Indian actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan might sue over the color of her skin on Elle India's most recent issue, the Times of India reports.

A source told the newspaper that "Aishwarya's first reaction was disbelief," when she saw the image of herself with lighter skin, adding, Aishwarya "believed that these things don't happen anymore. Not in this day and age when women are recognized for their merit, and not for the colour of their skin. She is currently verifying this skin-whitening allegation. If there is any proof of this, she might even take action."

Another source said, "She is clearly the global face of the contemporary Indian woman. The last thing she'd want is to have a global image coloured by a racial suggestion."

In September, American Elle was accused of lightening Gabourey Sidibe's skin color on the cover of its 25th anniversary issue. Editor-in-chief Robbie Myers dismissed the claims, explaining, "At a photo shoot, in a studio, that is a fashion shoot, that's glamorous, the lighting is different. The photography is different than a red carpet shot from a paparazzi."

Take a look at Aishwarya's cover:

In October:

(Via Styleite)

Comments

[Nilesh Moralie]

10:24 PM on 01/14/2011

I find the article ridiculous. On many a red carpet, such as the last one at the Cannes film festival, her skin was as pale as any European actress. Their pictures are clearly lightened during photoshoots, and no one gives a hoot. Indians come in all colors and sizes etc. Her skin is actually extremely pale, and it doesn't make sense that people make an issue about this but not about all the Caucasian models who are clearly not snow-white in real life but look that way in magazine shoots.

[alaskan]

05:24 AM on 01/13/2011

First of all, she's extraordinarily beautiful in every shade.
Second of all, Elle should publicly apologize and their next six covers --- no, ALL their covers from now on ---- should feature gorgeous women of every shape, color and age. Start with women like Wangari Maathai and Temple Grandin.

[Rambling Ruminations]

08:14 PM on 01/11/2011

Clearly photoshopped. But Aishwarya should stop feigning ignorance and moral outrage. She has been a model for a long long time and i have seen photographs of her from her Pepsi endorsement days( the very first commercial which bedazzled everyone) , Tips & Tops, Lux beauty soap etc etc all of which carried photos of her looking almost as pale as this.

All of a sudden she is an ambassador for looking au-naturale!

[shaunlandry]

07:04 PM on 01/11/2011

I will admit that this is a pretty photo on Elle. But I had to do a double take to realize it was indeed Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. I don't know. If you were on an online dating service and this was used as her profile pic...and you showed up at a restaurant to meet the *real Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?" I know the first thought would be "I thought she was Irish from that picture"

This picture shows me should would look great as a woman from Ireland. Everything else is disingenuous and sort of creepy on Elle's part. Yea. It was done in editing. But someone approved it...and it made it to the cover.

[pbsmith12]

06:04 PM on 01/11/2011

How can the September issue with Gabourey Sidibe be the 25th Anniversary issue, and the December issue with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan be the 14th Anniversary issue? If Elle editors did order her skin lightened, and it looks like they did, bad move. Not every beauty in the world is lily white. Ms. Bachchan is a rare beauty just as God created her, no Photoshopping required.

[Takae]

09:46 PM on 01/12/2011

25th Anniversary refers to the American edition of Elle.
14th Anniversary refers to the Indian edition of Elle.

Like many magazines, Elle has different editions around the world. Each edition caters to its country's culture, language, news and a preferred range of topics; all in accordance with Elle's flagship house and editorial style.

[AndrewJ]

02:51 PM on 01/11/2011

Bad photography over exposing a set of photos is not worthy of international petitions. Meanwhile Genocide and colonization continues to profit shareholders of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Bechtel Inc., etc. Has anybody considered that the poor choice for the front cover was also because the editors wanted a pale image so that people could read the text?

[Takae]

09:53 PM on 01/12/2011

"Has anybody considered that the poor choice for the front cover was also because the editors wanted a pale image so that people could read the text?"

Then their graphic designers need to return to school if they couldn't make it work, because there are many easy ways to make text stand out from light, dark or patterned background.

[McMarcia]

03:42 PM on 01/01/2011

heart breakingly beautiful woman, no need to do a single thing with photo shop on this woman.

[leftLibertarian]

12:03 PM on 01/01/2011

AIshwarya, you are very beautiful. Are you single?

[Takae]

09:50 PM on 01/12/2011

She married actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007.

[Kathleen Shimp]

05:05 PM on 12/31/2010

She looks not only lighter, but more pink-toned.

[Dionita]

12:52 PM on 12/31/2010

The powers that be at Elle realize that covers with darker skinned women don’t sell as well. Now with this controversy, they’ll sell even more copies. Go figure. Really.

[bluegigi]

07:50 PM on 12/30/2010

She's stunning. She's stunning on the cover (it does look lightened but I have no way of knowing), she's stunning in the other pic's. Plus her coloring is so gorgeous why would anyone want to change it any respect? It's beautiful as she is.

[bentax645]

10:34 AM on 12/30/2010

I will call it Post Prod Photoshop Racism...It was lightened no doubt. Even with hot over exposed by a couple of stops you may have hot highlights, but skin tone in the shadows would show the true color of the subject. Been in the Biz for 30 years..
http://www.benjaminkanarekblog.com

[nailinpalinnow]

12:48 AM on 12/30/2010

Just a publicity gambit. Next.

[huffpostreader10000]

12:18 AM on 12/30/2010

She looks much prettier on the cover than in the other photos.

[ribena]

09:16 PM on 12/29/2010

Um Ms. Rai isn't so innocent in this.

She has endorsed Lux's White Glow Soap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A32eY-gJoy0
and Loreal's White Perfect Cream:
http://bit.ly/gvKDfN

[gypsynomad]

08:50 AM on 12/31/2010

Not a big deal, is it ? Some people all over the world are known to do that , why, I don`t know but they do.

[Intelligentia]

06:41 PM on 12/31/2010

They do it for the same reasons Whites all over the world use tanning beds and sun-bathing to darken their skin.

[Intelligentia]

06:45 PM on 12/31/2010

It's good that you put it in perspective. Elle should have said: Hey, look, we admit that we lightened her skin but we did not think she would care,since she endorses skin bleaching. If she sues Elle for that, they hit her with the pictures you linked. Case closed!

[GSS0111]

06:31 PM on 01/11/2011

Oh, I don't know... having endorsed a specific product does not automatically give permission to publish a misrepresentation. Like others in the entertainment field, she was paid to endorse a product. One thing has nothing to do with the other.