'Colourist, classist, garbage': Hollywood actresses Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Supriya Ganesh hit back at 'maid phenotype' labels online

The rising tide of anti-Indian rhetoric on U.S. social media has found a new target: the faces representing the diaspora in Hollywood. While previous digital attacks focused on the Indian-American workforce and cultural practices, recent discourse has shifted toward a disparaging critique of South Asian actresses on the global stage.

The controversy erupted following a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) featuring actresses Supriya Ganesh, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Charithra Chandran, and Shabana Azeez. The post labelled them the "most common faces" used for Indian representation, derogatorily describing their appearance as the "kamwali bai phenotype" (maid phenotype).

"I hate Indian representation in Hollywood, they find the most chopped looking female they can and then make her the face of Indian representation," added the post.

The use of the term "kamwali bai" was widely condemned as both classist and colorist, weaponizing a professional identity to insult the actresses' skin tones and features.

"Colourism is so crazy because this guy genuinely wants you to believe the women are ugly," wrote one user on X.

"Trying to suggest that these girls are anything less than gorgeous is crazy," added another.

'The Pitt' actress Supriya Ganesh also responded to the post with a bold reply. "Hey so this is supremely f***** up and I truly hope you deal with your self-hate. Colorist, classist, garbage take" reacted the Indian-origin actress to the post.

"And I’m always going to talk back about this shit because I’m never going to let women and folks who look like me feel bad about themselves never going to shut up," she added.

'Never Have I Ever' actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan also hit back at the troll. "womp womp cry harder. must be hard to look at four baddies constantly," she wrote while adding a Kermit the Frog meme.

While Ramakrishnan was born to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, she is often misrepresented as an Indian and faces frequent trolling online. Ganesh, an Indian-origin Tamilian born in Texas is also targeted similarly.

Bridgerton actress Charithra Chandran and The Pitt actress Shabana Azeez are also Indian-origin actresses frequently subjected to racist criticism online. These actresses have become recurring targets for critics who claim Hollywood intentionally avoids "fair-skinned" or "Eurocentric" Indian archetypes.

The post underlines the anti-Indian sentiment growing far and wide in America. A recent Carnegie Endowment for International Peace survey described US as the "epicentre of anti-Indian digital racism." From X posts to temple vandalism, numerous hate incidents have occurred against the members of the Indian-American community in the past year, rising from calls for a ban on H-1B visas.