Asoka makeup trend inspired by Bollywood is shining a spotlight on South Asian beauty

There's a new makeup trend taking social media by storm, with videos rack‐ ing up tens of millions of views and influencers going viral just for trying it, and Canadians have some of the most popular ver‐ sions.

The Asoka makeup trend has generated hundreds of thousands of posts on Tik‐ Tok. In the videos, creators style themselves with Indian bridal hair, makeup and clothing to the music from a version of the song San Sanana from the 2001 Bolly‐ wood movie Asoka starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.

"This viral trend pays homage to the film and also to the timeless beauty of In‐ dian culture and its influence on make-up and fashion," notes Times of India, an Indi‐ an news site.

The trend isn't so much about the movie itself, a biopic with mixed reviews, re‐ ceiving 6.4/10 on IMDB and average 69 per cent on Rot‐ ten Tomatoes. According to Times of India, it's sort of an homage to Khan's character, who "flaunts ancient Indian attire and bold kohl-rimmed eyeliner," but with an Indian bridal twist (for this reason, it's also called the Indian bridal makeup trend).

The videos are complex and highly stylized, involving quick cuts, synchronized hand gestures, facial expres‐ sions, lip syncing and head movements, plus bold colours and makeup similar to some of the styles fea‐ tured in the film, including the bindi. Creators from around the world have posted that it's sometimes taken them eight hours or more to film their clips.

Influencer Durka Muru‐ gananthan, 27, of Stouffville, Ont., posted a video last week that has nearly two mil‐ lion views, and a second Tamil version of the trend

Monday morning that al‐ ready had more than 112,400 views by Monday evening.

Asoka makeup trend or not, it's been amazing just to see the rise of so many South Asian influencers and South Asian representation in the beauty space, Muruganan‐ than told CBC News.

"We deserve that space as much as the next person, but I feel like we're just starting to break down that barrier, and it's really nice to see," Murugananthan said.

The Bollywood esthetic Indian cinema or Hindilanguage cinema, also known as Bollywood, is the world's biggest film industry and known for its song-anddance sequences, romantic dramas and fantastical fash‐ ion. Kareena Kapoor Khan is an A-lister icon in this space, both for her roles - she's star‐ red in at least 70 films, ac‐ cording to Indian Express and for her influence on fashion (HELLO! India calls her a "true-blue fashion icon on the silver screen.")

The Asoka trend isn't sur‐ prising given how important the esthetic element is to Bollywood, and TikTok's pre‐ occupation with beauty and makeup routines, said Faiza Hirji, an associate professor in the department of com‐ munication studies and media arts at McMaster Uni‐ versity in Hamilton, Ont.

Think of all the trending "get ready with me" videos, where influencers just show their skin care and makeup routines, and the "Sephora Kids" trend of children ob‐ sessed with skin products. It's little wonder, then, that a look that emphasizes heavy, stylized makeup, glamour and prioritizes beauty (many Bollywood stars were former beauty queens) would take off, Hirji told CBC News.

"As an overall trend, I sometimes do wonder a little bit about how much of a focus beauty has become on TikTok, but if it's going to be a focus, I think it's great to have a diverse aspect to it, as well," said Hirji, who is also the author of Dreaming in Canadian: South Asian Youth, Bollywood and Belonging.

She noted there are also more South Asian influencers recently as more women feel empowered to pursue these channels to promote them‐ selves. For instance, Indian makeup influencer Debasree

Banerjee has fans around the world. Now, that influence is percolating, Hirji said.

"It naturally follows, I think … that they're going to reflect the things that influ‐ ence them, which I think is amazing."

Murugananthan said a lot of girls look up to her and other South Asian beauty in‐ fluencers. It's important to her to be a role model in the beauty space because it's not something she experienced growing up.

"We didn't see that. We didn't even see that in main‐ stream media, we didn't see it on television - we didn't see it anywhere," she said.

"Now seeing us being able to do this as a career, and to see us even just being pas‐ sionate about something other than, you know, be‐ coming a doctor, I think that's amazing."

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The problem with 'ex‐ otic'

While Hirji agrees the trend is positive, she does find it a little problematic when people who aren't Indi‐ an reproduce a look that has cultural significance to many people simply because it's exotic or trendy, or treated more like a costume.

That's similar to some of the criticisms on social media, where people are sug‐ gesting some of the videos posted by people from other backgrounds are cultural ap‐ propriation.

"Where are all these nonDesis finding cultural cloth‐ ing," one person wrote on TikTok.

"Don't even get me started on all the non-South Asian people low-key mock‐ ing this trend," another per‐ son said in a video.

It's complicated, Hirji said, because often Indian people who wear traditional clothing are singled out or criticized, and a lot of people of South Asian origin who grow up in the West learn to feel selfconscious. Then, when a nonIndian person wears Indian jewlery or clothing, it seems to become more culturally acceptable.

"To me there's something problematic when some peo‐ ple who wear it are subject to a racist backlash and others

are not," Hirji said.

That said, some of the most popular videos of the Asoka trend have been cre‐ ated by South Asian influ‐ encers, such as Canadian Dhivya Sri, a beauty influ‐ encer based in Ottawa. Her video, posted three days ago, already had 33.4 million views Monday evening. A be‐ hind-the-scenes video of its making has 37.3 million views.

"You guys are blowing this video up," Sri laughs in a video posted just after she published the original, in which she explains that it took eight hours from start to finish.

"For the past week, I have seen so many of these videos on my for you page, and I re‐ ally, really wanted to do it be‐ cause it looked so fun."