MUMBAI: The death of Sushant Singh Rajput has once again opened the pandora’s box of nepotism in Bollywood. The latest miscalculated and conceited argument defending nepotism has come from Sonam Kapoor Ahuja. The actor, who is the daughter of veteran actor Anil Kapoor and niece of producer Boney Kapoor, somehow managed to make even a Father’s Day wish controversial. Wishing her father on Twitter Sunday, Sonam admitted that she was “here because of him” and unapologetically stated that her privilege was a product of her “karma.” People offered a quick rebuttal, and asked whether one’s lack of wealth and privilege was a product of their supposedly bad karma.
She further tried to explain what "karma" meant, only making matters worse.
Today on Father’s Day id like to say one more thing, yes I’m my fathers daughter and yes I am here because of him and yes I’m privileged. That’s not an insult, my father has worked very hard to give me all of this. And it is my karma where I’m born and to whom I’m born. I’m proud
— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) June 21, 2020
But Sonam is not the first person from the Hindi film industry to have used petty tactics to defend their privilege. While she at least did us the courtesy of being plain disagreeable, others have chosen to hide their vulgar defence of nepotism in jokes. While hosting IIFA awards in 2017, Saif Ali Khan, Karan Johar and Varun Dhawan put out a nauseating skit shoving their male privilege into the face of each person who had called them out for nepotism. They ended the skit by shouting, not once but thrice, “nepotism rocks."
When Varun Dhawan, the son of director David Dhawan, won ‘Best Actor in Comic role’ for Dhishoom (don’t ask me why), Saif Ali Khan snickered and quipped that Dhawan was successful because of his father. Dhawan retorted by saying, “Saifoo, you’re also here because of your mumma.” Johar, who doesn’t like to stay out of such conversations, added, “I am here because of my Papa.”
Saif Ali Khan, who is not only the son of actor Sharmila Tagore but also the heir to the princely town of Pataudi in Haryana, has previously defended nepotism by saying that people confused it with genetics. In an excruciating open letter penned in 2017, Khan admitted to the long spell of flop movies he was a part of, but said that the choice to favour star kids was just “eugenics and genetics that’s coming into play."
Then there was that meme-worthy interview in which Ananya Pandey said that despite being a star kid, she too faced struggle, since her father, actor Chunky Pandey, was never invited to Johar’s chat show Koffee with Karan.
Suffice it to say that no number of accusing fingers, heartfelt conversations and nuanced discussions on nepotism will make our tinseltown stars check their privilege. I wish it didn’t have to be spelled out, but here’s a crash course on nepotism for all those born with a silver spoon.
Karma isn’t real
Sorry to break your bubble Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, but karma isn’t real. It’s a concept invented by savarnas (upper caste Hindus) to justify the continued marginalisation of those that their discrimination and exploitation has pushed to the fringes of society.
It reinstates the unjust belief that being born in a socio-economically backward family must mean that one didn’t commit good ‘karm’ (deeds) in their past lives. It also asserts that those pushed to the sidelines continually ‘deserve’ to be there. Far from acknowledging her privilege, Kapoor’s claim feeds into strong propositions that justify and perpetuate an unequal society. Surely, she couldn’t be suggesting that unsuccessful ‘outsiders’, who didn’t have the same opportunities or were not afforded as many second chances as star kids, had bad karma?
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Everyone doesn’t get lucky with their inheritance
Much like acting, it can be safely said that political correctness is not Varun Dhawan’s strongest forte. In an interview discussing nepotism, the actor brought up a strange, disrespectful analogy, “They (outsiders in the industry) are acting like their fathers didn’t buy them one pencil box also.”
His disastrous, mocking commentary continued with a bloated argument, “After a point, it just becomes an excuse."
Putting aside the peculiarity of bringing up a humble pencil box in a debate on nepotism, Dhawan reduced special preferential treatment, access and opportunities to the idea that since everyone inherits something from their parents, — even if it lacks every ounce of head start that star kids like him get — everyone benefits from nepotism in some way. Dhawan must be living under a rock, or perhaps his privilege has made him ruthlessly blind to inequalities in our society. Is ‘inheriting’ a pencil box the same as bagging a lead role with the most coveted director in the Hindi film industry?
Even if his comments aren’t taken too literally, Dhawan must know the brutal truth — not everyone is as lucky as him. And his defence of nepotism, to use his own words, is just an “excuse."
Nepotism exists in all fields. So what?
Another Kapoor who just can’t seem to make sense of her privilege is the daughter of Indian cinema’s first family, Kareena Kapoor, married to Saif Ali Khan. The actor simply dismissed nepotism, calling it ‘overrated’, and said, “Doesn’t nepotism exist in every possible field? But nobody addresses that.”
Kapoor’s whataboutery is nothing but a way to defend herself since she is a product of nepotism. It is a significant marker of Bollywood’s inner circle and its inability to get over itself, and offer the big seat to someone else.
Nepotism exists everywhere is an unarguably fair argument, but raising that concern also doesn’t bring you a clean slate for being the product of the concept itself.
Outsider’s failure not the same as that of a star kid
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha also weighed in on the contentious debate and said that there are as many examples of “nepotistic failures as of outsider successes."
Even if his claim holds true, it is an absolutely unfair comparison. Compared to an outsider, a star kid’s failure won’t shut all doors for him or her. An outsider is unlikely to get more than one opportunity to succeed, and must continue to succeed or s/he will be soon forgotten. Alia Bhatt’s disastrous performance in Student of the Year still bagged her roles in films like Highway or 2 States.
Acknowledge your privilege
That’s it. Just acknowledge your privilege, it’s the easiest thing you could do.
And while you’re acknowledging it, it wouldn’t hurt to tell your ‘inner gang’ of industry supremos to show some spine and speak up too. The audience finally demands a change — Karan Johar and Alia Bhatt’s plummeting social media follower count is just one indication.
SOURCE – THE PRINT
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