Nepotism and Star Kids!

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I Avinash Meshram, welcome you to my blog, Shall We Live on Mars? I hope you like to read my blog. Smiley...

My father was a government employee. Working as a postman in a post office in Mumbai. One day, he died, because of long illness. Things changed after that. Won’t get into it much. When he died, Government offered a job to my mother in place of my dad. My mother offered that job to me, thinking it would make my future, and what would she do of that job in such an age?

I was studying MSc Mathematics in IIT Bombay, at that time. I offered that job to my younger brother, thinking I would land one or the other job someday and this job can bring stability to my brother. So finally, after a lot of discussion, it settled that my younger brother would do that job.

My question is, would my mother have favored me for that job if I wouldn’t have been her son? Or would have I favored my brother to take that job if he wouldn’t have been my brother?

What is Nepotism?

In simple words, it is favoring a friend or a relative over someone else.

Then don’t we all practice Nepotism in one way or the other? I mean, who doesn’t favor a friend or a relative, over a stranger?

Let us say, you are in traffic police. You see two bike riders jumping signal. Both of them are wearing helmets so you don’t see any of their faces. Now let us say, you are an honest police officer. Obviously, you stop both of them, scold them, and ask them to take their helmets off. Coincidently, one of them turns out to be your best friend. Now, my question is… will you or will you not, ask your best friend to pay the challan for jumping the signal? If you do not ask him to pay, then wouldn’t that be a Nepotism?

Let us say, your driver’s son is more intelligent than your son. You know that. But still, you would pay more for your son’s tuitions and schools education, much more, than your driver could afford, so that, when the time comes, your son gets more opportunities than your driver’s son. Isn’t that Nepotism?

Let us say, Sachin Tendulkar’s son needs some tips in bowling. Sachin can simply call Zahir Khan or Brett Lee and ask them to give some bowling tips to his son. But would he do the same for every guy who needs bowling tips? Wouldn’t that be a Nepotism?

If you are a businessman. You have worked hard to build a company by your life’s hard work. You have a team of very talented people working with you, which made it possible to build your company. But when the time comes for you to retire, you would choose your son to become the next CEO of your company, even though there are other people who have worked hard, alongside you. wouldn’t that be a Nepotism?

Anant Ambani joined Reliance Jio as an additional director. Why? Because he is Mukesh Ambani’s son! Otherwise, in a perfect world, would really a 25-year-old rookie land a job of an additional director in one of the largest telecom sectors in the world? Isn’t that Nepotism?

In the beginning, entertainment industry was just seen as a part of an entertainment, and not as a part of a career choice. People working in the entertainment industry were not respected and seen as of being on a low level. Dadasaheb Phalke, when decided to produce India’s first feature film, he couldn’t get any women to act in his movie, because, no family wanted their girl to be working in any movie. So they had to ask their male actors to wear sarees and act as female lead. They felt shame in telling people that they were all making a feature film, so while going to the set, to shoot, they used to tell the villager’s that they are going to a Factory to work. The name of the first movie was, Harish Chandra. So, all the crew members of the movie used to say that they are going to work in Harish Chandra’s Factory!

From hiding what they do, to making it the most lucrative industry. And from rising themselves from dust to becoming the stars… they all have worked really hard and made it possible because of shear talent. And now, like every parent, they want their children to work in the same field they are working in. And they try to support their children in it like every parent in the world, then why are they being trolled for it? We looked them down when the industry was trying to get on its feet and now we blame them for Nepotism when they have made the industry amazing enough for everyone to want to be a part of it. Is that fair?

Star kids are close to each other since childhood. They play together, go to the same school, party together, hang out, etc… even before they enter Bollywood. So, it is obvious that they are going to have a better bonding between them and are good friends since long. But that doesn’t mean they are not ready to accept anyone else in their community. If that would have been the case, then no other actor would have been able to make it into Bollywood. We all know that, that is not true and there are many actors, directors, singers etc, who have found their way into Bollywood and doing good. There are many examples of that.

No one controls the fate of Bollywood other than us. We all blame Star kids for Nepotism, but have we ever thought that they were only born as start kids. It is us who have made them starts.

I am not in favor of Nepotism. I believe in equality and equal opportunities. But I am still writing this article because whenever I hear about Nepotism, I only here about star kids and nothing else. Like Nepotism and star kids have been synonyms. Which I don’t like.

If there is someone to blame for Nepotism in Bollywood, then it should be us, and not the star kids. Because, even though they get their first opportunity in Bollywood because of their parents or contacts, it is us who decide their fate and decide to keep them around by appreciating their work. It is us who make them stars. May be they get an easy start, but they really have to work hard to live up to our expectations and find a way to stay in the competition of being loved by us. There are many people who have no Bollywood ties and still doing good in the industry and there are also many people who have really good connections in Bollywood and still couldn’t stay in the industry. So it is us, who decide the fate of every person in the Bollywood industry. So we should either stop watching the movies of any star kids, if we really think that they are in the industry only because of Nepotism and not because of their talent and hard work. Or we should suck it up and stop pointing fingers at them for Nepotism. We can’t have it both ways!!!

 

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