Indian couple’s wedding photos meant to spread joy draw online trolls over groom's dark skin colour

Dubai: When their wedding photos were posted online, the jubilant groom Rishabh Rajput didn’t expect the reaction to turn ugly so quickly.

“People were making memes about my skin colour — on my wedding day. How is that okay?” he said on his online account, responding to the backlash.

Rajput and his wife, Sonali Chouksey, who met as college students in 2014, married last month in Madhya Pradesh after 11 years together. Their colourful ceremony looked like any other Indian wedding — but once the images reached social media, the couple found themselves at the centre of unwanted attention.

Much of the trolling targeted Rishabh’s darker skin tone. Hundreds of users commented that the couple “didn’t match”, while others attacked Sonali, accusing her of marrying him “for money” or for “a government job”.

Some even speculated about his family’s wealth or political connections.

Parts of their responses and quotes appeared originally in an interview with BBC Hindi, where the couple explained how the trolling escalated.

Rishabh said he had never heard such comments in the 11 years they had been together.

“In all our years, no one ever said we were a mismatch because of skin colour. Suddenly the internet decided it mattered,” he said.

The trolling intensified when commenters began criticising a photo featuring their families.

“Troll me if you want, but don’t drag my family,” he wrote online, after comments targeted his mother and their sisters.

India’s long-standing bias towards fair skin formed the unspoken backdrop to this reaction. For decades, fairness creams have dominated the beauty market. Brands such as Fair & Lovely — now rebranded as Glow & Lovely — and men’s fairness products endorsed by major stars, including Shah Rukh Khan in the past, helped reinforce the idea that lighter skin is more desirable.

Even today, those attitudes continue to appear in comments like the ones directed at this couple.

Sonali told BBC Hindi that the remarks did bother her. “When they insult him or call me a gold-digger, it irritates me. People forget that behind their comments, real people are reading them,” she said.

The couple said that a few seconds of video cannot reflect the reality of their relationship. “People judge us from a 30-second clip. They don’t know the 11 years behind it,” Rishabh said.

Both have also spoken openly about colourism in several interviews. Sonali pointed out that India has a wide range of skin tones: “Fair skin doesn’t make anyone a good person. So why judge people on complexion?”

Rishabh added: “Seventy to eighty percent of Indians have darker skin tones. But somehow the mentality is still that fairer is better. That needs to change.”

For those who say they “don’t match”, he had a simple response:
“When you look at us, do we look unhappy? We aren’t. Because I have her, and she has me.”

Sonali once dreamed of a wedding witnessed by her whole village. Instead, this moment has been watched by the whole world — and not always kindly.

“For social media, it’s entertainment,” she said. “For us, it’s our life. And these comments can hurt families.”