Akshay Kumar made fun of my skin tone, everyone had a good laugh, says his ‘Saugandh’ co-star Shanthipriya

New Delhi: Actress Shanthipriya, who debuted along with superstar Akshay Kumar in 1991 film ‘Saugandh’, recently revealed how she was looked down upon in the industry because of her skin tone. Shanthipriya also alleged that her sister Bhanupriya quit films as she was not accepted in the industry for her skin colour, reports BollywoodLife. 

The former actress also said that Akshay made fun of her skin tone while they were shooting for ‘Ikke Pe Ikka’ in 1994 and the entire crew laughed at her. 

“My role in the film ‘Ikke Pe Ikka’ was of a modern girl and the script demanded that I had to wear a short dress. I used to wear skin-coloured stockings and once while shooting, Akshay joked about my knees looking darker than usual. He repeatedly said that there were blood clots in my knees and all the actors and other members of the crew had a good laugh,” BollywoodLife quoted the actress as saying to a publication.

Shanthipriya added that incidents like these made her uncomfortable in her skin. She was “humiliated” and said shootings were stopped midway as her make-up “wouldn’t match” her co-stars.  

“Today, I am proud of myself but earlier I used to be humiliated in front of the entire crew. I was told that my makeup would not match with the hero and both of us looked different. Then the entire process would be redone. It was very embarrassing. Every day before going to shoot I would get scared as to how people would react to seeing me. There also came a time when I used to spend more time hiding my skin colour rather than improvising on the script or other things,” Shanthipriya said.  

However, she categorically mentioned that Akshay is her good friend and she is not complaining, but one should understand that such jokes on someone’s colour can hurt the person.

Shanthipriya worked in several Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. ‘Ikke Pe Ikka’ was her last film, after which she featured in some TV shows.