Indians have loved pink rani pink long before ‘Barbie’ mania took over

India is not a country that shies away from colour.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

When I went to see Barbie, I realised I had missed the pink memo. Every other person in the theatre, irrespective of gender, seemed to be wearing something pink. Even the theatre lobby seemed awash in pink.

I looked more closely and realised most of that pink was thanks to the posters of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Barbie might be a global phenomenon but in the battle of pinks, it has been clearly out-pinked by Karan Johar’s latest film.

Just the climactic scene, with full-on band baaja baaraat as Rocky lays out the pink carpet to woo Rani, arguably has more pink than all of Barbie. And a far hotter rani pink than Barbie pink.

The West seems to have discovered (or re-discovered) pink lately and Barbie has delivered a pink turbocharge. The 2022 Valentino Fall runway show was named Valentino Pink PP. Glenn Close went to the 2022 Met Gala in an electric pink suit while Justin Bieber showed up in a hot-pink beanie at the Grammys last year. Trend expert Dayna Isom Johnson told Good Morning America that Barbie’s “hot signature pink” was “a much-welcomed mood-booster after the last few years”.

Except, as Rocky and Rani remind us, pink has been boosting the Indian mood forever and not just in Jaipur, the Pink City. We did not need Barbie to teach us to love pink once again because before Barbiecore pink or Hello Kitty pink or even Jackie Kennedy pink, we have loved our rani pink.

Rani pink is an emotion

Rani pink, someone said, is more than a colour. It’s an emotion. Some say it was a dye derived from the roots of the Indian madder (Rubia cordiflora) which was the deep rich pink of a ruby and very popular with royalty. The West claims shocking pink had a more colourful origin. In The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair writes that Daisy Fellowes, a notorious socialite from the 1920s and 30s wore the bright pink 17.47 carat Tête de Bélier diamond while meeting couturier Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli was so captivated by the “bright impudent” colour that she incorporated it into the packaging of her first perfume. The bottle was modelled after the torso of the sultry Mae West and the case was hot-pink. The name was Shocking.

India is not a country that shies away from colour. Our gods get orange marigolds. The gopurams of ancient temples are a riot of candy colours. Diana Vreeland, the legendary editor of Vogue magazine, famously said ‘pink is the navy blue of India’.

That makes all the fuss about the pink revolution Barbie has unleashed quite amusing. In one of the earliest scenes in Rocky Aur Rani, one of the grandmothers shows up in a bright pink sari. No one bats an eye. It just fits the colour palette of the film.

Yet, too many of us have internalised the Western colour boxes where blue is for boys and pink for girls. An Indian gay social influencer recently posted an Instagram picture of himself in a pale pink shirt as if it was a badge of courage. But at my local market I have no problem spotting men in pink T-shirts, some of them much brighter than his. And they are not trying to make any woke gender statement.

Pink for boys and blue for girls

In fact, the blue-pink rule is relatively new even in the West. In 1893, The New York Times had an article on baby clothes that specified “always give pink to a boy and blue to a girl”. Some think it’s because reds and pinks were stronger colours (Catholic cardinals and British redcoats wore red) while blue was more demure and subdued (the colour of the Virgin Mary).

That flipped in the 20th century. Pink was the colour of western skin and since nudes in classical paintings were overwhelmingly female, pink became associated with femininity. In 1979, correctional officers Gene Baker and Ron Miller at the U.S. Naval Correctional Center in Seattle found that painting the holding cells a Pepto-Bismol pink seemed to reduce violence because, St. Clair writes, it apparently “could sap the strength of even the toughest men”.

India did not really have these hang-ups about a touch of pink. From “Rocky Randhawa this side” to brides to Jawaharlal Nehru’s pocket squares, Indians have always had a soft spot for rani pink.

When I saw the men and women in pink at the Barbie screening, none of them, not even the men looked like they had bought pink clothes to make a Barbie statement. Pink was clearly already very much a part of their wardrobes.

I just felt embarrassed I had forgotten to wear pink. To compensate, I ordered a strawberry sundae, but to be honest, that felt like pink-washing.

The writer is the author of ‘Don’t Let Him Know’, and likes to let everyone know about his opinions whether asked or not.