BackAd is axed but will Aishwarya axe Kalyan Jewellers?
Being politically right and smart about one's livelihood are two different choices
PremiumThe hue and cry—and hue is a convenient pun here—about the Kalyan Jewellers advertisement featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan tells us yet again why knee-jerk, righteous reactions only get us half of a serious debate.
First the “offensive" advertisement, with Rai Bachchan dressed like an opulent queen and a “black child" holding a red parasol over her head, has been withdrawn by Kalyan Jewellers. Good thing, let’s clap, even if cynically with a too-little, too-late attitude.
Now look at the many revelations under this umbrella. The foremost being that the actor had no control over the final creative work and that her photograph was shot without the background details. That’s the statement officially put out by her publicist. That may just be about right. How the final advertisement is creatively imagined is not her call. But what may be difficult to digest for those who work in the glamour industry—from stylists to make-up artists to photographers and photographers’ assistants and writers—is whether an ad can really go up without a top star clearing it? Top celebrities and stars are usually possessive and obsessed about how they look in the final rendition of the pictures they shoot for—commercials or editorial photographs for glossies. Notoriously, some “approve" of a series of pictures for the creative director to build the story. So it is hard to sit back and accept that Rai Bachchan was as surprised as we are with what she saw in the jewellery advertisement.
If she does, we will know she is smart and wise enough to allow her politics (of righteousness) to affect her livelihood. If not, I for one am not going to blame her because she is certainly not a leader of change. One of the most naturally “peak-shifted" woman in recent times, with perfect facial proportions, height and skin that India worships, Aishwarya Rai is Aishwarya Rai because she is fair-skinned and beautiful. She is the most extraordinary example of the dominant discourse we follow. So accusing her of being racist is shifting the burden that lies on us.
What the Kalyan Jewellers advertisement also reveals is the limitations of the creative team. The most done to death idea in photography and fashion is to juxtapose exoticism with modernity, fair skin with dark, saddening poverty with beautiful products, sadhus around bikini-clad models. An overwhelming number of fashion commercials, editorial stories in fashion and beauty magazines, both global and Indian, as well as coffee-table books on photography, exploit and reuse this core idea of visual antithesis. I can take eight examples right now without resorting to Google, and so can you if you follow these debates.
Then there is Indian royalty as raw material or inspiration. God save us. How much have we beaten, eaten, digested, and gaped at royalty in fashion and photography? The apology sent out by Kalyan Jewellers says the advertisement was intended to portray “royalty, timeless beauty and elegance", and expresses regret for any inadvertent hurt caused.
Royalty, timeless beauty and elegance—anyone who uses these words together in the world of advertising, fashion, beauty and photography should be shown the door out of a creative profession. Don’t we have any new ideas for India, of India or by India?
And finally, the easiest thing to do is to make a pretty woman look breathlessly stunning—Aishwarya Rai Bachchan doesn’t even need jewellery to look like that. But it’s a complex and fascinating creative challenge to make an ordinary woman look worship-worthy and inspirational with Indian jewellery on her. Why don’t product companies look for bold, non-racist, non-offensive, yet sparklingly new ideas waiting to be converted into visual politics of a fair kind?
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