Fair and Handsome', 'White Beauty', 'Fair and Lovely'.

A quick survey of India's cosmetic industry betrays our 'darkest' secret: Indians favour fair complexion in a huge way.

Need further proof? Scour a list of matrimonial advertisements in vain to find just one proclaiming 'Very dark, very beautiful.'

But hold on. Who decided that dark and dusky can't be beautiful?

Vogue Italia, a magazine considered by many to be among the world's foremost voices on high fashion, is celebrating the unique beauty of dark-skin in its upcoming July issue. Steven Meisel -- one of the fashion industry's most successful photographers -- and a platoon of the world's most beautiful dark-skinned models combined their talents to produce the groundbreaking issue, which features only dark-centric photo shoots and features.

In India too, despite the supposed setback of possessing a dark complexion, many of our best and most successful models and actresses are decidedly dusky. And all the more beautiful for it, too!

We salute these gorgeous women.

Bipasha Basu

Oddly enough, the Bengali bombshell's rise from the Kolkata lass next door to 'Asia's Sexiest Woman' started with the afore-mentioned Mr Meisel.

After winning the very prestigious Ford Supermodel of the World contest at the remarkably young age of 17, Bips was spotted by Steven and subsequently featured in Vogue magazine. From that magical moment, she has had us all on Cloud Nine, perhaps most famously in Omkara's hit item number, Beedi....

Vidisha Pavate

Before Bipasha, it was Vidisha who won the Ford Supermodel of the Year title back in 1996 -- she was the contest's first-ever Indian winner.

Bangalore fashion guru Prasad Bidappa first convinced Vidisha to dabble in modelling in the mid-1990s and a short while later Paris, Milan and London came calling. Vidisha ultimately returned to India, where she has been a major force in marketing and modelling over the last decade.

For all of India's insistence on fair skin, sexy Vidisha epitomises the dusky, exotic good looks our women are famous for.

Mallika Sherawat

She's been called a number of things -- 'One of Asia's 100 most beautiful people', 'India's most expensive item girl' and 'India's number one vamp', to name a few.

And while Mallika's provocative item numbers and skimpy outfits may upset the moral sensibilities of many Indians, there's no one alive who'd dare say this Haryanvi heart-throb isn't hot, hot, hot!

Carol Gracias

This Mumbai lovely is a fave of India's fashion runways.

With her long, swaying limbs, gorgeous bronze skin and cute features, it's as if Carol was born to model. She won Femina Elite's Look of the Year title in 1998 and further cemented her star status with a second place finish in the first edition of Celebrity Big Boss where she won over a mainstream audience with her no-frills simplicity and her version of Hindi.