MUMBAI: Sanjay Gandhi has been part of the industry for over three decades and has been a part of films like "Black Friday", "No Smoking", "Gulaal", "Udaan" and "Hate Story 3", to name a few. The actor feels that the industry is always on the lookout for new talent and believes that it's not nepotism but talent and destiny that plays an important role in shaping one's career in showbiz.
"I believe nepotism is there, but it's only twenty percent. If you know about the history of Indian Motion Pictures, you will know that be it Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Pran, Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna, all these actors were outsiders. Raj Kapoor was the only lucky actor whose father was Prithviraj Kapoor and he was able to make it to Bollywood easily. But his talent made him a star and not his father. If you look at the current scenario, if nepotism was given importance, then Uday Chopra would have become a superstar. Tusshar Kapoor is such a brilliant actor, his sister Ekta Kapoor, would have signed him for all the Balaji Motion Pictures. Amitabh Bachchan was an outsider but he became a megastar, in case of nepotism, his son Abhishek Bachchan should have been a superstar by now. But that's not the case here, right. Only talent and destiny sell in the industry, and not nepotism. The industry is always on the lookout for new talent," he said.
The versatile actor also asserted that all those people, who are outsiders and have made nepotism an issue, should never forget where they came from and also remember their loyalty.
"All these people who have made nepotism an issue, just ask them who they are. Kangana Ranaut is an outsider and she will always be an outsider, why? Because she is not from Mumbai or Bollywood, she is from Himachal Pradesh. But is she loyal to the makers who gave her a break? Just ask all these people who are always talking about nepotism, are they loyal to their directors, producers, writers or co-actors? And I want to ask, why did they never speak about exploitation earlier. Why now? That means they were waiting to get into power and then take revenge. If they can't be loyal to others, how can they expect others to be loyal to them. Anyone and everyone who is successful in the industry they always get the attention. Rajesh Khanna was India's first superstar, but people stopped casting him later in his life not because of his attitude, but because his films stopped running at the box-office. Even today there is no bigger superstar than him in the industry, so if his films were working, people wouldn't have bothered about his attitude." he said.
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Sharing his journey from Delhi to the glittery entertainment world in Mumbai, he said, "I am an outsider. I came to Mumbai thirty years back, and I knew no one. I only knew one actor Kanwaljit Singh and when I came to Mumbai he introduced me to director Akash Jain and asked me to assist him in his movie 'Gopalaa', so that I can understand the know-how of filmmaking. Then I joined Mazhar Khan and assisted him in 'Gang'. Then I realised that I came here to become an actor and met Makarand Deshpande at the Prithvi Theatre and he asked me if I knew any play. So after a couple of days, I went to him with a 50-minute monologue by Nirmal Verma called 'Dedh Inch Upar'. He was shocked that I knew it so well. So the next day onwards we started rehearsing. And there were so many people who used to come to Prithvi Theatres then like Anurag Kashyap, Sanjana Kapoor, Prashant Narayan, Vijay Morya, and Aashish Vidyarthi. I am so thankful to Makarand Deshpande that because of him we could form a theatre group called Ansh. So that's how I started."
He concluded by saying that everyone's journey is unique but nepotism does not make one a big star. He also confessed that once an actor becomes successful in the industry instead of having gratitude towards the people who made them what they are, they forget them and that's not correct.
"I just want to mention that parents struggle so that their kids can have a brighter future. So Yash Johar made an empire for Karan Johar and similarly Yash Chopra made it for his son Aditya Chopra. This is the basic rule. And how they want to run the business that's up to them. But if you want to work for them, you need to show some loyalty too. Loyalty is missing from people these days and that's the biggest problem. All the struggling actors or even the established ones, their attitude changes soon after they get work. And it changes drastically once they taste success. These people have three faces, one they show when they want some work, second when they get the desired work and third they show once they get success. So I will just end by saying that don't talk about nepotism, talk about talent and destiny, be loyal to the one's who stood by you and you will be successful," Sanjay signed off.
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