Beyonce Celebrates Brown Skinned Women And Bollywood Gives Her “Tujhe Dekh Ke Goriya Beyonce Sharma Jayegi”
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These days, Bollywood star kids have been on the public’s radar due to their more advantageous status. The latest star kids to catch the ire of the public (and for a good reason) have been Ishaan Khattar and Ananya Panday. Everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows that things are very tense in the Black Lives Matter community. After the murder of a black man named George Floyd, supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement decided to step up and protest to see him receive justice. Grammy award-winning singer Beyonce released an empowering musical called “Black Is King,” which featured people of brown, black, and every skin tone in between. Her song, Brown Skin Girl, in particular, featured South Asian women in traditional garb. So what did Bollywood do? Well, they decided to insult the Queen Bee herself. Let’s take a look at why the song “Beyonce Sharma Jayegi” is not only offensive to Beyonce but racist to black and colored women everywhere:
In This Article
Colorism Is A Problem In Bollywood
Look, you’d have to be legally blind to say that colorism in Bollywood doesn’t exist. In a Business Insider list released in June 2025, they noted the top 10 highest-paid actresses in Bollywood. On that list, Priyanka Chopra was the only actress who had a darker complexion. We do not deny that things have improved as years have gone by, but it is nowhere close to fair. We’ve seen darker skin-toned actresses like Bipasha Basu, Radhika Apte, Sayani Gupta, etc., gain fame, but it wasn’t an easy road for them. We’ve often seen fair-skinned Indian actresses cast in lead roles while their darker skin-toned peers have been pushed to the supporting cast.
This isn’t the first time Bollywood has dished out a song with racial undertones. Remember, “Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan”? So, it should honestly not come as a surprise that music duo Vishal and Shekhar decided that now was an appropriate time to release a tone-deaf and racially insensitive song. The song features star kids Ishaan Khattar and Ananya Panday dancing along to the lyrics of “Tujhe dekh ke goriya, Beyonce sharma jayegi.” The word Goriya is often used to refer to women of a fairer skin tone. When the musical duo released this song, they had no idea that the song would gain backlash online and cause Beyonce fans to go wild.
Brown Skin Girl And Celebration Of Indian Culture
So why is this song offensive? Well, besides the obvious colorism and comparisons that were drawn in the song. Beyonce released the song “Brown Skin Girl” to celebrate brown-skinned women everywhere and featured a few Indians in the music video as well. The song paid homage to Indian culture and is honestly the song that every brown-skinned girl needed while we were growing up. Considering how much of a cultural phenomenon Beyonce is, it’s absolutely ridiculous to insult her in such a manner. To watch Brown Skin Girl, click here.
Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khattar are after all newbies in the industry. Beyonce has been working in the music industry before either of the two were even born! To compare Ananya to Beyonce is first, like comparing apples to oranges, and secondly, totally unnecessary! After the video was released on YouTube, it gathered over 201 thousand dislikes in less than 24 hours. People in the comments section weren’t kind either. Many spoke about how much they hated star kids and criticized Ananya and Ishaan for participating in the song.
How Beyonce’s Fans Reacted
this is straight up racist. bollywood when will you move past your goriya obsession and pls leave beyonce out of your damn mouths pic.twitter.com/Cp8kZGY6xq
— mon⁷ 🍃 mi pan zoe zoe zoe✨ (@peekaiu) September 7, 2025
Beyonce has millions of fans worldwide, and almost everyone would have heard at least one song of hers in the past. Her Indian fans especially were very disappointed with the music and made comments apologizing for the song on behalf of the song’s makers. Many people on the internet pointed out the racist connotations attached to the word “Goriya” and brought up how Beyonce has always been pro Indian culture. Earlier, Beyonce had even starred in and sang the song “Hymn For The Weekend” with Coldplay. The video was shot in India and even featured Beyonce in traditional Indian garb.
Many Beyonce fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment. One fan spoke about how the country owes Beyonce an apology. Others took it upon themselves to let the world know that as Indians and lovers of Beyonce, they did not support the song or its colonialist colorist message. Many Indian fans had earlier shared screenshots of the song, “Brown Skin Girl.” They spoke about how although the song predominantly featured African and African-American women, it also featured a representation of our culture. After all, brown-skinned girls aren’t given much representation even in Indian music. At least, not in a positive light.
As an informed and educated audience, we need to start holding celebrities accountable for their actions. Especially if they are misinformed. If we don’t start having conversations around the topic of colorism, we will never be able to truly gain a diverse and more talented bunch of actors and actresses. Actors and actresses who were of darker skin tone have often struggled when being cast in the roles of the lead characters in films. Many have often been overlooked simply because of their complexion. Let us do our best to make informed decisions about the content we consume. Do let us know your thoughts on this article in the comment section below.
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