Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee slams 'racist attack' on TV show

MUMBAI: Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee wasn't amused when comedians of 'Comedy Nights Bachao' on Colors TV joked about her complexion. After she shared on social media her sentiment about the "blatantly racist" attack, a spokesperson on behalf of the channel apologised.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Tannishtha wrote about her experience of being on the show in which comedians 'roast' their guests. She pointed out that the only thing they could roast about a darkskinned actress was "of course her dark skin". "I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive (I can't call it humour), and blatantly racist content," she wrote.

A Colors spokesperson responded: "As a channel, Colors has always focused on creating content that is meaningful and addresses pertinent social issues -- skin colour bias -- being one of them. A few years ago, Colors was in fact appreciated for its show 'Laagi Tujhse Lagan' where the protagonist was discriminated against because of her dark skin colour and how she fought this social evil," adding, "Please accept our apologies for any hurt that was unwittingly caused".

The actor said her anger was not personal, but that it was a larger issue about deep biases in society.