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Dark is Divine is a photo series by Chennai photographer Naresh Nil and creative director Bharadwaj Sundar that recasts Hindu gods and goddesses with dark or dusky skin. The portraits use devotional imagery to question why fairness is so often treated as beautiful, pure, and divine in India.
What is Dark is Divine?
Started in September 2017, Dark is Divine was made as a Facebook photo series by Nil and Sundar. The two run Slingshot Creations and developed the project as a personal creative effort alongside their advertising, fashion, and music-video work. One report says the team spent about two months making almost seven portraits; another says an initial plan for 12 images was reduced to six because of time and budget. The accounts differ on the final count, but both describe a compact portrait series rather than a large campaign.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The images portray figures including Bala Murugan, an avatar of Subramanya; Lakshmi; child Krishna; Durga; Shiva; and Sita with Luv and Kush. Costumes and jewellery drew partly on the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, connecting the photographs to a familiar visual history of Indian devotional art while changing the skin tones at its center.
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Who photographed the dark-skinned Hindu gods?
Naresh Nil photographed the series, working with creative director Bharadwaj Sundar. The pair invited models with dark or dusky skin and considered whether each person felt comfortable presenting and identifying with the skin tone represented in the portraits. Their approach treated the models not simply as props for a visual statement, but as participants whose comfort with the portrayal mattered.
Why did the creators challenge fairness in devotional imagery?
Nil said the idea grew from what he called “this very notion of acceptance of fair as divine,” describing it as the normalization of that concept in society. The creators saw fairness valued not only in beauty standards but also in familiar religious imagery, where figures such as Lakshmi, Ganesh, and Shiva are often depicted with fair skin.
By placing dark-skinned models in roles associated with divinity, the series asks viewers to notice how visual conventions shape assumptions about beauty, purity, and holiness. Sundar described the aim as showing that “even dark is beautiful and there’s nothing to be ashamed of being dark skinned.” Nil likewise said the project sought to point to “people’s obsession with fairness.”
The series was discussed alongside Dark Is Beautiful and #BinTheTube, efforts that challenged fairness-cream culture. The available coverage does not establish a reliable figure for the prevalence or economic scale of colorism in India, so the project is best understood through its specific visual argument rather than an unsupported statistic.
How was the project received?
Coverage described reactions as mostly positive, though some viewers questioned the treatment of Kali and Kalratri, whose dark skin is already central to their popular representation. Nil responded that the series was a creative endeavor grounded in the team’s observations, and that differing interpretations could encourage more varied work.
That criticism points to a distinction within the project’s subject matter: making dark skin visible in devotional art can challenge a fair-skin hierarchy, but applying the same intervention to every deity may not have the same meaning. The discussion around Kali and Kalratri shows why representation depends on the particular figure and the visual history audiences bring to it.
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Where can you see or buy the Dark is Divine photos?
The project was published as a Facebook photo series. The available reporting does not establish a current official viewing page, print shop, or licensing channel, so it is not possible to confirm where the complete series can be viewed today or whether prints are available for purchase.
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