Is the Bollywood Mafia strategically eliminating the talented outsiders?

This post is not about the tragic death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. This is a post about nepotism or bhai-bhatijawaad in the Indian Film Industry. Nepotism was always there in the glam world but the existing ‘Bollywood Mafia’ (as Kangana Ranaut chooses to say) is extremely vicious and we, the viewers need to tackle them.

Why only ageing heroes and half-baked star sons and daughters star in high budget films? Why do we see the same old crafty faces at film award ceremonies? Why does the film industry stink of staleness? Simple! the Bollywood Mafia has been strategically eliminating the outsiders – real talents.

Rajput was an outsider too. There may have been many causes for his suicide, but nepotism was definitely one of them. He was constantly being pushed out of the centerstage, where he belonged. But a group of muscle-flexing, pretty boys and skimpily clad, surgically enhanced, starlets tried to edge him out of sight.

How can real talent survive when they are forced to stay back and remain on the fringe? Let’s think about last year’s Hindi films! Except some of the Ayushmann Khurrana films, what we have been watching are trashy movies. ‘Dabangg 3’, ‘Student of the Year, Housefull 4, Bharat, Kalank… all these films are not worth more than one or two stars. Would you watch any of these again? The below third-rate quality of our films is all due to nepotism.

The industry has been serving concocted success stories of half-baked star sons and daughters. The media is funded by the mafia to carve glorious images for the non-deserving relatives of stars. And they are projected as great actors just after working for one or two films.

Supporters say that nepotism only works for the initial break of the star kid and hard work matters after that. But the point is, despite delivering flops they are privileged to stay around in Bollywood. However, for the talented outsiders, it’s extremely hard to get into the industry and extremely easy to get chucked out.

They have no ‘Godfathers’ to hang on to…and then, there are filmy vultures ready to feed on them. The privileged people of the industry get to stay despite flops after flops. They just refuse to move or make room for talented outsiders.

You and I have seen so many fine and popular actors getting restricted to character roles because they would not be offered main roles. Yes, there are examples of some success stories that survived nepotism…Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Ayushmann Khurrana…they have been extremely lucky.

And as Ram Gopal Verma said, the outsiders do become insiders of the industry in the long run and promote their family, it happens with every industry. But Verma should remember that every industry is not film industry. Here, the public matters the most! AFTER ALL, WE PAY FOR THE TICKETS TO WATCH YOUR FILMS!

So, we, the viewers should get to decide which actor or actress is deserving. Not Bollywood, Not Media, Not the PR people….!

We, as viewers have the right to expect quality films but what we have been getting is trash after trash. Our regional cinema is more artistic, imaginative, creative and supple than mainstream, which seriously suffers from stagnation and draught of ideas. Every other YouTube or TikTok star seems more talented than our film actors. And look at our performance at international level, our films are pathetic as compared to world cinema. The system needs to be overhauled!

We, the viewers should demand for anti-nepotism policies in the film industry…no son, daughter, spouse, friend or relative should be given privileges. Almost, every organization has anti-nepotism clause then why should it not apply to the film industry?

Only talent should matter, only talent should thrive! Very soon, the film industry will suffer from a public backlash, and we the viewers will run the show biz. It is time the Public takes the power back from them. The revolution has begun… we have the social media on our side to begin with.

(Images courtesy Google)