Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri who is known for his directorial ¡®The Kashmir Files¡¯, recently talked about the nepotism culture in Bollywood. Although this is not the first time he has commented on this, his latest statements do have more curves. Vivek who is now working on his next directorial, ¡®The Delhi Files¡¯ feels that nepotism is the last decade's evolution and not something which has always been in Bollywood.
Vivek in an interview stated that he feels there was no nepotism in the Hindi film industry before 2000. He went on to mention that stars like Sridevi, Amitabh Bachchan and Jitendra, among many others, were all outsiders when they made it big. However, when their children came into films, Bollywood became ¡®a very close-knit kind of a mafia¡¯.?
In a conversation with Brut India, Vivek said, ¡°Bollywood used to be different. I think pre-2000, it was a different place because most of the people were outsiders. And those stars, people who became big stars by 2000, their children then came and then slowly it became a very close-knit kind of a mafia, and they have some problems with outsiders. I don¡¯t know why. And that¡¯s why they are suffering also¡±.
Agnihotri believes that Bollywood families ¡®closed the doors for everybody else¡¯. ¡°Here (in Bollywood) what happened post-2000 is that they closed the doors of this castle for everybody else. I don¡¯t think there was nepotism before 2000, because if you look at the stars, Dharmendra was an outsider, Jitendra was an outsider, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Shatrughan Sinha were outsiders. You name anybody ¨C all the actors, heroes, heroines ¨C Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi ¨C these are all outsiders¡±.
Vivek, whose recent directorial The Kashmir Files became this year's one of the highest-grossing Hindi films, added that because of nepotism, there are hardly any writers or lyricists ¡®from the Hindi land¡¯ in Bollywood now. According to Vivek, today's lyricists are ¡®very urban and modern¡¯. Hence, they fail to connect with the world around them.
Vivek has made the best use of the larger audience base he garnered, after the success of his recent film. From calling out Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor during Brahmastra's release, to always believing that he is a torch bearer of outsiders, Vivek has come a long way. It¡¯s awaited how his next film, The Delhi Files is to be perceived by the audiences.?
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