The idea of beauty for majority of people in India is limited to fair skin. Bollywood is not different and fair skin does play an important role in mainstream cinema.
In an interview to Indian version of an International Magazine, Priyanka Chopra said that industry is still dominated by the fair skinned and light eyed actresses and it's difficult for unconventional dark skinned beauty to retain their position in mainstream cinema. According to her, the film Industry is quite biased but Indian audiences are quiet accepting. So, Priyanka feels more than looks, how one connects with audience it matters.
So, now every second actress in Bollywood is dusky or wheatish. Once dark colored unconventional beauty was restricted to art cinemas, but nowadays dark is considered hot and sexy and they are quite part of mainstream cinema. Dusky looking beauties like Bipasha Basu, Kajol, Tanushree Dutta, Priyanka Chopra, Malaika Arora, Lara Dutta, Sameera Reddy, Konkona, Raima Sen, Deepika Padukone and Rani Mukerji not only hold high pedestal in Bollywood but look divinely beautiful and dignified.
Dusky look is more acceptable to audience as it's not about the complexion; the look somehow makes the actress look mysterious, real and achievable. As too much fairness is exotic to Indian culture, audience find fair complexion plastic and unattainable. Moreover actresses nowadays are comfortable in their skin and thus exude sensuality. In the age of experimentation and reality, actresses who look real have more demands rather than fair complexioned.
But Bollywood still believes in the exotic factor and try to introduce “firangis” in their movies to include that exotic factor. So, is it a fair-play in Bollywood?