Nepotism or Gondagiri

Today's non-nepotism actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Ayushman Khurana, Rajkumar Rao, Irfan Khan, etc who have or will have kids in the future will grow up in a few years and want to be actors. Then what? These actors have struggled hard and reached where they are with their art. So what are these kids supposed to do? Today's kids like Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhat, Sonam Kapoor, Abhishek Bachan, etc are all kids of such veteran actors who have worked hard and are here. Is it right to blame them?

I feel the problem is in groups that exist. There are many groups like

Karan Johar - SRK

Farah Khan - SRK

Yash Movies - SRK

Rohit Shetty - Ajay Devgan

I have named just a few big houses which I remember.

Earlier Davi Dhawan - Govinda

Sunil Shetty and Govinda complained about their roles being chopped by Akshay Kumar so that he gets a bigger role.

I feel till this favoritism exists this problem will continue. Such a dirty power display should end.

I agree with you completely.

I think I said this somewhere else, but nepotism is inevitable. If I have the privilege why won't I use it? But there's a difference between nepotism and what goes on in Bollywood today.

In the older days, like 80s and 90s, there was nepotism, but not to this extent. Kumar Gaurav was launched, he did well in a few films, but after a while people said tata to him. Shadaab Khan (Amjad Khan's son) was written off in the first film itself. From the Kapoors, only Rishi Kapoor really did well. Randhir Kapoor had a good spell, but it didn't last long and Rajiv Kapoor just disappeared. Sunny and Bobby Deol had a good career, but Esha Deol was marred with failures and disappeared. There are many such examples. It's not that they were written off after just the failure or bad act, but none of them were continuously featured everywhere.

Today though, if you are a nepo kid, then you are privileged. Your struggle is "trying not to be known as that star's kid". It's to try and get "Koffee with Karan or a Dharma film because my Dad was never in one". Today, it doesn't matter if you can act or not, you are ever director's first choice. Even if you don't fit the role (cough, cough, Arjun Kapoor, cough, cough), you are the first choice and the only choice for the director. Even if there are 100 other actors who could do the role better than you, you are still taken because you are a star kid. While true talent struggles to even be taken seriously by second tier directors, you don't work with anything lesser than top tier and then call it a struggle because you had to "call and ask for the role" even though you were getting it anyways.

That isn't nepotism anymore. It's movie mafia. And it begins with one or two PHs, but is prevalent everywhere. Heck, even if you are only a child, you are already being groomed and presented to the world as a future diva or superstar. How is anyone supposed to compete with that?

I wish I married Bhagyashree so she would launch me 🤣

OK nepotism is there

Before what used to happen good actors sailed though like sanjay dutt, sunny deol, amir khan, anil kapoor although they had bollywood family connections

But after 2000 the worst are also getting chance after chance after failing too like arjun kapoor

Also the average are also getting chance after chance despite 5-10 flops like abhishek bachchan, kareena kapoor, tiger shroff, esha deol etc

Imagine if these above were not star kids will they get 5 to 10 movies to get success?

If a talented actor like ranbir kapoor or hrithik has 5 flops than gets another movie its fine

But untalented are pushed forward depriving talented of chance

If movie is bad and it flops its ok

Originally posted by: myviewprem

But untalented are pushed forward depriving talented of chance

This. Exactly this. People that have nothing in terms of talent are pushed through just because they have connections.

True nepo talent doesn't get anywhere. Look at actors like Pranutan Bahl or Abhay Deol or Meezan Jaffrey. They have so much talent, but they don't have the same success as untalented nepo kids like Alia Bhatt or Sonam Kapoor or Tiger Shroff. That's because these nepo kids have the movie mafia backing them.

Originally posted by: ProfMcGonagall

This. Exactly this. People that have nothing in terms of talent are pushed through just because they have connections.

True nepo talent doesn't get anywhere. Look at actors like Pranutan Bahl or Abhay Deol or Meezan Jaffrey. They have so much talent, but they don't have the same success as untalented nepo kids like Alia Bhatt or Sonam Kapoor or Tiger Shroff. That's because these nepo kids have the movie mafia backing them.

Abhay a family could’ve helped him. He didn’t want to be a commercial star. He wanted to make art films and still be a big star.

It was never gonna happen 😆

Don’t make Dev D make Devdas ❤️

Originally posted by: ProfMcGonagall

This. Exactly this. People that have nothing in terms of talent are pushed through just because they have connections.

True nepo talent doesn't get anywhere. Look at actors like Pranutan Bahl or Abhay Deol or Meezan Jaffrey. They have so much talent, but they don't have the same success as untalented nepo kids like Alia Bhatt or Sonam Kapoor or Tiger Shroff. That's because these nepo kids have the movie mafia backing them.

Talent is subjective, box office success is largely objective. You can think Abhay is talented but Alia is not talented and I can think the exact opposite. However, we cannot really disagree too much on the box office verdict of their films. Largely, producers cast actors based on success because they need a return on their investment. It's as simple as that.

Originally posted by: ProfMcGonagall

I agree with you completely.

I think I said this somewhere else, but nepotism is inevitable. If I have the privilege why won't I use it? But there's a difference between nepotism and what goes on in Bollywood today.

In the older days, like 80s and 90s, there was nepotism, but not to this extent. Kumar Gaurav was launched, he did well in a few films, but after a while people said tata to him. Shadaab Khan (Amjad Khan's son) was written off in the first film itself. From the Kapoors, only Rishi Kapoor really did well. Randhir Kapoor had a good spell, but it didn't last long and Rajiv Kapoor just disappeared. Sunny and Bobby Deol had a good career, but Esha Deol was marred with failures and disappeared. There are many such examples. It's not that they were written off after just the failure or bad act, but none of them were continuously featured everywhere.

Today though, if you are a nepo kid, then you are privileged. Your struggle is "trying not to be known as that star's kid". It's to try and get "Koffee with Karan or a Dharma film because my Dad was never in one". Today, it doesn't matter if you can act or not, you are ever director's first choice. Even if you don't fit the role (cough, cough, Arjun Kapoor, cough, cough), you are the first choice and the only choice for the director. Even if there are 100 other actors who could do the role better than you, you are still taken because you are a star kid. While true talent struggles to even be taken seriously by second tier directors, you don't work with anything lesser than top tier and then call it a struggle because you had to "call and ask for the role" even though you were getting it anyways.

That isn't nepotism anymore. It's movie mafia. And it begins with one or two PHs, but is prevalent everywhere. Heck, even if you are only a child, you are already being groomed and presented to the world as a future diva or superstar. How is anyone supposed to compete with that?

I agree with this nepotism conflicts fundamentally with the values of egalitarianism and merit. The way he curates the careers for his nepotism products probably discourages and genuine talent from coming forward knowing its going to that much more difficult for them to compete. In fact he has taken nepotism to new heights. Before it was untalented star kids getting chance after chance like Tushar, Esha, or Twinkle. Now its whatever nepotistic product of his getting best scripts and directors because he lobbies for them. Of course it is going to become more difficult for someone more talented to leave a mark. And you cannot say nepo products are the most talented out of a population of billions in India. Will we ever see true talent thrive in Bollywood is the question. Manoj Bajpai in his recent interview says. He doesn't see the issue in nepotism itself but the way it is practiced doesn't honor talent. Talent can sometimes be born in a director or star's house. But in a population of billions there is a very good chance of it being born in poor village or a clerk in Delhi's house. He wants to see talent thriving.

Originally posted by: HugeScarcity

Talent is subjective, box office success is largely objective. You can think Abhay is talented but Alia is not talented and I can think the exact opposite. However, we cannot really disagree too much on the box office verdict of their films. Largely, producers cast actors based on success because they need a return on their investment. It's as simple as that.

The thing is box office may be objective but it is not fair. Box office and ROI rely on marketing, WOM, and the number of screens a movie is sent to.

In Toronto and surrounding areas there are really only 3 major theatres that show most Indian movies (Bollywood and South industries combined). If the movie is from a big PH or has a big star in it then some local Cineplexes (our major national chain) will have the movie in Indian dominated cities. Now a movie like Notebook would be lucky to get into one of the 3 major theatres, but a movie like Veere Di Wedding is guaranteed prime time and prime spots in Cineplex. At the end of the day, how is Notebook supposed to generate good ROI and make the actors popular if that's how it is shown on screens?

Originally posted by: ProfMcGonagall

The thing is box office may be objective but it is not fair. Box office and ROI rely on marketing, WOM, and the number of screens a movie is sent to.

In Toronto and surrounding areas there are really only 3 major theatres that show most Indian movies (Bollywood and South industries combined). If the movie is from a big PH or has a big star in it then some local Cineplexes (our major national chain) will have the movie in Indian dominated cities. Now a movie like Notebook would be lucky to get into one of the 3 major theatres, but a movie like Veere Di Wedding is guaranteed prime time and prime spots in Cineplex. At the end of the day, how is Notebook supposed to generate good ROI and make the actors popular if that's how it is shown on screens?

Notebook was Salman Khan production. Doesn’t he always get good release sizes ?