Bengali actress Shruti Das, popularly known for her role in the show 'Desher Mati', recently filed a police complaint against online abuse over her dusky skin tone. Das, who debuted in 2019 in Bengali soap Trinayani, said she had been shamed for her skin tone for the last two years but it reached a point where she could not take it anymore as the attacks were becoming more and more personal. “Initially, everyone around asked me to ignore the trolls, and so did I. But it only got more vicious with time. I am in a steady relationship with the director of my first TV serial ‘Trinayani’, and the hate brigade, after getting to know that, has been making distasteful remarks, questioning my character and my talent.
“I thought if I take it lying down any further, it would only give them more reasons to continue with this hatred,” the 25-year-old woman, who now plays the lead in Desher Maati, told PTI.The actor, who tagged the Kolkata Police on Facebook to draw attention to the nasty comments targeted at her, was told to email the details to its cyber cell.A senior police officer said the matter was being looked into.“ The cyber cell of the Kolkata Police has received an email from actor Shruti Das regarding the online abuse that she had been facing because of her dusky skin tone.“ The actor, in her complaint, has said she had been receiving such hatred since 2019. She has also attached screenshots of the social media comments,” the officer said. Das noted that many in the industry, too, had made her skin tone a topic of discussion, with some from the production units having said that she wouldn’t have got her second gig, if she wasn’t given the right kind of makeup and presentation in the first soap. he further pointed out that she wasn’t the first actor to have faced the brunt for her skin colour. “Some of my seniors, who are now household names, have gone through similar predicaments for their complexion,” Das maintained.