Sushant Singh Rajput Just Refused A Fairness Cream Ad Deal Worth 15 Crore: Reports

New Delhi: The debate over fairness creams and adverts encouraging one skin colour over another has now got a Sushant Singh Rajput angle to it. The 31-year-old actor reportedly turned down a Rs 15 crore offer to be the face of a fairness product . "Sushant doesn't believe in endorsing such products. So despite it being a lucrative offer, he immediately turned it down," mid-day quoted a source as saying. The proposed endorsement reportedly required Sushant to feature in six advertisements over three years but, it's a 'no' from the actor's end. "He feels that he needs to be responsible about the kind of products he lends his face to, as several people look up to him," the source added.

Explaining his decision, Sushant told mid-day that he is against the idea of promoting fairness creams because: "As responsible actors, it is our duty to not indulge in sending out incorrect messages. We should not, in any way, endorse or promote the ideology of preferring one skin tone over another." Sushant had made his stance against endorsing fairness products pretty clear last year after Abhay Deol directed his scathing post towards Bollywood stars for their endorsements.

The debate over the 'unfairness' of fairness creams were brought to the forefront after Abhay Deol, last year, shared photos of from various fairness cream adverts endorsed by Shahid Kapoor, John Abraham, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor and said: "Even if the writing on the tube reads 'Intensive fairness moisturiser'. It just means it's 'FAIR' to all who use it." His post was in response "to a comment made by a politician on TV" - Abhay was referring to former BJP parliamentarian Tarun Vijay's comment that how India is not racist because we share the land with 'dark South Indians'. Later, Priyanka Chopra and Nawazuddin Siddiqui also joined the Anti-Fairness Products campaign.

Last seen in Raabta, Sushant Singh Rajput has a busy schedule for this year with Drive and Chanda Mama Door Ke in the pipeline. He's also the hero of Sara Ali Khan's Bollywood debut Kedarnath.