Indian men are following the lead of their beauty-conscious female counterparts and are rushing out to buy a new skin-whitening cream whose success has surprised even the manufacturers.
Fair and Lovely cream has been popular among Indian women for years. Now a male version, Fair and Handsome, has been launched.
'The response has been fantastic. We thought men might be a bit shy of buying this product but they aren't,' said Mohen Goenka, director of Enami, manufacturer of Fair and Handsome.
The market for skin-lightening creams has grown two-thirds in the past five years, to an annual US$250 million.
'Indians don't think you can be dark and handsome - the phrase 'tall, dark and handsome' in the west referred to dark hair, not dark skin,' said advertising executive Alyque Padamsee, with tongue in cheek.
Historians and anthropologists explain that the popularity of fair skin among men might stem from the fact that the country's invaders and later European colonisers had light complexions. Therefore, fairness is equated with superiority, power and influence.