As a part of the promotions of her recently released film Parched, Tannishtha Chatterjee along with director Leena Yadav and co-star Radhika Apte went to show Comedy Nights Bachao.

She was described as a “kaali kalooti” and asked if she has been eating jamun (blackberries) since childhood as a result of which “mooh kala hai”. The show is hosted by popular stand-up comedians, Krushna Abhishek, Mona Singh, Ssumier Pasricha, Bharti Singh, Nia Sharma and Sumeet Vyas, who usually manage to raise a laugh with insults but this time they crossed the line.

Tannishtha Chatterjee in her interview to Mumbai Mirror says, “Racism is propagated through such shows.” The actress also spoke about racism in Bollywood and how makeup men ask her to go a “tone lighter” for appearing as a fair, urban woman in the movies. Tannishtha says, “I had been led to believe that it was going to be a ‘Roast’ (on Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza). In the West, they cheer your achievements by making fun of them and I was excited about being ‘roasted’ on a comedy show on a leading national channel.” But the actress feels that Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza definitely crossed the line and tested her patience. She immediately told her publicist that she wants to leave the show.

But apparently, Tannishtha was not even let go of properly. The show’s crew just could not understand why she was walking out, she says. Finally, they agreed but insisted that she shoot her “exit shot”! She reveals, “They did not understand why I was angry and told me that if I was offended by any particular dialogue, they would edit it out and mock something else about my features. When I refused to continue, the best they could come up with was, ‘Madam exit toh shoot kar lo!’”

Tannishtha said while she had nothing personal against the show, she felt that making fun of skin tone is not roast, in a country where people don’t get jobs because of their complexion, where every matrimonial advert demands a fair bride or groom and the colour bias is so strong, and rooted in the caste system.

“Even considering that dark skin is a joke comes from that very deep prejudice. I tried to explain why this is not personal and it is a larger issue about what our mindset is and why cracking jokes about deep biases in our society is irresponsible.”

This shows how racism and colour is treated in India. Tannishtha too feels that although a dark complexion is much liked in the West, in India, we look down upon our own people. The actress also said that she was once asked that being a Chatterjee, that is a Bengali Brahmin, how come she was dark-complexioned. It is commonly believed in India that Brahmins are of fair complexion.