Indian movie star Freida Pinto has announced that cosmetics giant L’Oreal altered photos of her featured in a company ad campaign several years ago, making her skin look lighter than it actually is.
"I’m sure they did, because that’s not the colour of my skin you saw in a few of the campaigns," the actress said.
According to Pinto, when the controversy came to light, she immediately told her agent that she would like to "see the pictures before" and to question her employers "on colour correction".
"All the brands, including L’Oréal, have a skin-lightening range that they sell in India and I made them put it in my contract that I would not touch that with a barge pole," Pinto added, noting that after she protested against the skin-lightening, "it never happened again".
Freida Pinto rose to prominence after her debut in 2008 drama Slumdog Millionaire. Since then, she appeared in a number of movies and TV shows, earning herself widespread recognition and praise.