Posted:
Originally posted by: grumpydwarf
He did I am trying to find it!I know this was Kangana's respone to it, which was very well appreciated.
I don't know where he gave that statement but it reminds me of his letter where he was stating how the only good auditions came from products of nepotism 😆
I read the papers, I go on Twitter, I surf the internet, and everyone seems to be having the last word on the nepotism row. And now I am going to too.
So, let's get some facts straight: I agree and I accept that nepotism is a reality, that it exists. Nepotism is a result of easy access to an exceptional resource. I acknowledge that my father was a producer and that made my first film, even the idea of it, possible. But let's also not forget that I started as the son of a producer with five failures behind him. I entered the world of films as AD (Assistant Director) to a first-time director (and yes, it wound up being DDLJ, but we didn't know that then!). But still, even if I didn't recognize it as access at the time, that's what it was.
And yes, I have launched Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, and, yes, maybe you can say nepotism played a part. You can argue that there was proximity and I leveraged it, that there were relationships at play which were factored. David Dhawan was, and is, a friend. I took his son on as an AD as a favour to that friend. And then I saw talent. And then I platformed it.
When it came to Alia, I wasn't even talking to Mahesh Bhatt! I've even gone on record saying we had issues. We had auditioned 5,000 people and she was one of them. If there was anyone better than Alia Bhatt, she would have been in the movie, but there wasn't. She just stood out. Maybe her name played a role in why, but I think her body of work already proves that's not it.
And genuine talent can exist and does even in a world that's insular. They are not mutually exclusive. Did I cast Ranbir Kapoor because he's Rishi Kapoor's son? Of course not. I cast him because he's staggeringly talented (by every measure and metric that exists) and he fit the part perfectly.
I have also launched Sidharth Malhotra who has nothing to do with anyone, but why bother mentioning that! And, by the way, Kangana has done a Dharma film. We have offered roles recently to Nawazuddin Siddiqui and to Irrfan Khan which they have turned down! And that's fine, I hope we'll be able to work together later. They are not obliged to do films they don't think will work for them, and I am not obliged to cast anyone unless I think it works for the movie.
And, you know, currently we're auditioning for Student of the Year 2 and we're not finding anyone! I swear the only girls who are not bad are those with a connection. I don't know why or how because we've tried everything to find a girl from Bangalore, from Delhi, but we can't make it happen! And everyone will call me nepotistic. Again!
And, you know, currently we're auditioning for Student of the Year 2 and we're not finding anyone! I swear the only girls who are not bad are those with a connection. I don't know why or how because we've tried everything to find a girl from Bangalore, from Delhi, but we can't make it happen! And everyone will call me nepotistic. Again!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Writers Corner: Books, Stories & Poems
11