Manish Gupta breaks his silence on Nepotism.
Manish Gupta breaks his silence on Nepotism.
By Neha Jha
Writer-Director Manish Gupta who scripted the story, screenplay and dialogues of cult movies like ‘SECTION 375’ and ‘SARKAR’, and who directed critically acclaimed films ‘RAHASYA’ and ‘THE STONEMAN MURDERS’, finally breaks his silence on the nepotism debate. Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Your take on nepotism in Bollywood?
A. Nepotism is rampant here. Some senior people from the industry had compared nepotism to an industrialist’s son inheriting his father’s business. This comparison is completely wrong. Of course, any producer or actor would want to launch his son or daughter. But here, producers are launching the sons and daughters of other people! – of actors who they have no connection to.
Producers feel that launching a star kid instead of an unknown new actor is like getting an insurance for their money because – due to the hype around his/her parents, a star kid automatically has hype around him/her.
But this is a completely failed strategy.
An actor succeeds in Bollywood only if he or she has great acting skills or has great looks or screen presence. Irrespective of whosoever’s son or daughter he or she may be, an actor is bound to fail if he or she does not have talent or screen presence.
Hence, casting should be done on the basis of merit, not on the basis of the actor’s surname or parentage.
Unknown actors who are talented should be given equal opportunties to prove themselves.
On the other hand, there are certain star kids like Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and others who are immensely talented and
hence they deserve their success. Even if they do get opportunities much more easily and enjoy many privileges, we, as a society,
should not grudge them their privileges.
Q. Do you think Sushant Singh Rajput was a victim of nepotism?
A. No. He was far too established an actor to be a ‘victim’ of anyone. His last movie had crossed 100 Cr. and people were chasing him with offers. Yes, many big banners had boycotted him but he had plenty of offers from other equally powerful banners.
Sadly, our society has been jumping to conclusions with regard to Sushant’s tragic death. There’ve been all sorts of allegations flying back and forth.
As a society, we should be more sensitive towards Sushant’s family and also more responsible by not randomly pointing fingers at people who may or may not have had any hand in Sushant’s tragic demise.
It’s the job of the police, CBI and judiciary to thoroughly investigate and examine all facts available and then pass a judgement about the truth.
Social media cannot judge who’s a murderer or abettor, it’s the court’s job to do that.
For all the people who’ve been accused correctly or incorrectly for causing the tragic demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, I’d like to quote a line from my movie ‘SECTION 375’ – “Pronounced guilty by the people’s court of Facebook….”
I hope the real culprits are apprehended soon by the CBI and brought to justice.
