The Literal Sense Of Nepotism After-Effects

Yesterday as I got up from my seat after watching Lipstick Under My Burkha with a sense of wow with one dialogue hooked in my mind “Pata hai di hamari galti Kya hai? hum sapne bohot dekhte hai..!” wow na?. So, I turned around to see barely even 20 people sitting in the theatre, although I should mention it was Monday, so makes sense right. But as I got out of the theatre, three other movies ended around the same time around 400 – 500 people started coming out simultaneously. Apparently, and rather ironically, those three movies were: Fidaa (ft. Varun s/o Naga Babu), Munna Michael (ft. Tiger s/o Jackie Shroff) and Mubarakan ( ft. Arjun Kapoor s/o Boney Kapoor). As it was, let me tell you all three of them didn’t fare that well against Lipstick Under My Burkha as per critic reviews. Now, this made me think, does Nepotism/ Favouritism only exists at a producer or director level? Or is Nepotism a by-product of consumer demands.

Let’s Prove Our Nepotism Hypothesis Here

Let’s Play A Game Here:  Consider you were a producer and two directors approached you. The first director is a female director who only directed one movie and is planning on doing a women-oriented subject with no Rani Laxmi Bai kind off a revolt in it in the end. The movie would show the daily lives of women in a growing city. The second director, on the other hand, has given many hits and he’s here with a masala comedy flick with a double role of a hero and lots of situational comedy.

As we all know, I’m talking about Lipstick Under My Burkha and Mubarakan. Obviously, if I’m a sensible man I would definitely choose the second director cause that guarantees me huge profits and I didn’t even mention the budgets of each movie. Just by a sheer guess, you can tell what the masses like. In support of this hypothesis, allow me to show you the last two weeks box office collections in the month of July (in gross courtesy – Bollywood Times)

Indu Sarkar – 3.55 crs

Lipstick Under My Burka – 10.96 crs

Dunkirk – 18.07 crs

Munna Michael – 33.12 crs

Mubarakan – 23 crs

Raag Desh – 0.74 crs

There’s Another Side Of The Story For Nepotism Really.! 

The above is the first weekend collections of all the movies that released in the week. Now, if I say a star kid can bring you this kind of collections with proper promotions, then YES Nepotism Exists..!!. But, also because the audience is consuming it. A star kid brings forth a market, an assured footfall which no fresher can. Now if you call choosing a safe option Nepotism, then call it whatever you want. They’re still making money. An argument made that India isn’t a market for plot-driven movies work is not proper either. Otherwise, why would Dunkirk get that kind of business? It’s just that we Indians don’t want to invest Rs. 150 on an Indian plot-driven movie. Obviously, with Dunkirk, there is a prestige involved and we will watch it, you see.

That’s the reason why I said Nepotism is a by-product of what we want to see. A producer will any day sell what he wants to sell and we’re just giving him more reason to do so. It’s an interesting point to note that the trailers of all the other three movies- Indu sarkar, Raag Desh and Lipstick Under My Burka got huge responses. In fact, these movies were most awaited for, if their reactions were anything to go by. And what’s more interesting is that people felt the other two were too slapsticky. Another fun fact is that these three movies trailers even stirred controversy as,

1. Indu Sarkar talked about the emergency period, which garnered anger over a few communities. The movie, directed in fact by National award winner Madhur Bhandarkar, was left to die a slow death.

2. Raag Desh talked about Subhash Chandra Bose’s army, which till now hasn’t been shown on the silver screen. This movie too was directed by National award winning director Tigmanshu Dhulia. It went without a whistle.

3. Lipstick Under My Burka was all over the place and it famously got a delayed release, by a year. As we all know ( Don’t worry Pahlaj miyan ke barre mein detail mein discuss karenge with another article).

Which brings us to the tagline of article “East or West star kid is the best” or as AIB likes to say “Jab sau crore kamane ho star kid ko tum cast Karlo”

Fangs Of Nepotism Within Bollywood 

Still not convinced? Ok, Let me give you my own example now. A few weeks back a movie named Jagga Jasoos released, which couldn’t fare that well at box office, although it got positive critic reviews. The reason being, there was a lot of bad mouthing about the movie, although not many people saw the movie. Everyone was like “yaar purre gaane hi hai movie, barfi jaisa hi hai yaar” and in the end, even I didn’t go to watch it.

I, who used to constantly rant over bringing niche films to mainstream Bollywood didn’t go to watch a movie which brought in a different narrative altogether. All I’m trying to say is, we can’t just keep on blaming Bollywood for Nepotism when we ourselves are reluctant on changing our tastes. Or watch what isn’t regular. And if we reduce going to a star kid’s movie, which we think lacks plot or logic, and instead try and give other movies a chance, then the producers would be forced to choose the actor we love watching, over the star kid. Otherwise, why would an actor like Shashank Arora, after such brilliant performance in Titli, remain work less for around 2 years? Well, because not many people watched Titli. So, at the end of the day, we as the audience bring the market to any actor who’s out there.

We Make Nepotism Exist, Not Anyone Else

So, to answer the greater question here ” Why does Nepotism exist?” would be because media is making us consume it. Because Nepotism has always existed, but we got to know that term after Kangana said it. And the media lost its shit over one word. Before that, no one even batted an eye whether a movie featured a star kid. If the media really has a problem with Nepotism then it should show a way out instead of pointing towards Bollywood.

Instead of showing actors who are the products of Nepotism, instead of showing us the movies which were made all because of Nepotism, come up with a list of actors who could’ve done way better work.  Give the audience and the producers an option otherwise. If the media keeps flashing names all day then the producers would be forced to rope in those talents, cause at the end of the day, Nepotism is a by-product of what we want to see. After all, the customer is the king 😋

PS: I’m not telling you to go watch every plot-driven movies that come from now on, but at least don’t keep on watching every star kids movies and then go home and say ” arre yaar ye pura nepotism pe chelta hai Bollywood” Na, sonuuuu…Tujha content pe bharosa nahi kya??

(Because we dig this movie..and the censor board doesn’t)