However, the road to Hollywood success was rife with internal struggles, the 25-year-old actor said.

“No one let me forget that I was dark-skinned growing up,” she said, Teen Vogue reports. “My grandma was very light-skinned. Whenever we’d go around in India, they’d always say, ‘Oh, you’d be pretty if you had your grandmother’s coloring.’ ‘Shame about the color of her skin.’ ‘She’s pretty for being dark-skinned.’ All of these comments, all the time.”

Chandran understands the weight she bears as a darker-skinned Tamil actor alongside Simone Ashley, who plays her older sister, Kate Sharma. According to a 2015 study, colorism is prevalent in Indian culture and is a byproduct of European colonial rule and the nation’s caste system.

“For me, colorism in some ways is more painful because it feels like a betrayal of your own,” Chandran said, Pop Culture reports. “If someone’s racist to you, you have your community to lean back on.”

“… If someone’s attacking you from inside your own family, or trying to oppress you, or create a hierarchy within your own family, that is in some ways, so much harder to deal with,” she added.

Charithra-Chandran

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