Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachcha has let Elle magazine know that she is not happy with their latest local edition. Featuring as this month’s cover girl of Elle India, Aishwarya believes her skin colour has been digitally lightened.

Aishwarya on AFP (left) and on Elle India’s January 2011 cover (right)

According to the Times of India, sources close to the actress said that she is considering filing a lawsuit against the magazine if she finds proof that her skin was purposely made to look paler. This could be obtained by looking at the original snapshots. Elle India’s editor in chief, Nonita Kalra, has told PTI agency that Aishwarya Rai’s skin colour was not modified.

New York Post article dated 07/08/2008

As well as inducing anorexia or misleadingly using fake eyelashes, the fashion and beauty industries are often accused of lightening the skin colour of non-Caucasian models and actresses. The last media scandal happened in Summer 2008, when L’Oreal was accused by numerous African-American associations of lightening the skin of singer Beyonce in an advert that featured in Elle’s American edition.