ISSN 2455-4782 NEPOTISM IN FILM INDUSTRY: AN UNENDING DEBATE Authored by: Dr. Deepti Kohli * * Associate Professor, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Delhi ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Nepotism is not a new issue in the society. It revives itself with the growth of film industry. It can be seen in politics as well. In the film industry it can be seen at the level of production, distribution, marketing etc. The disadvantage of it is that, it eliminates the talent and hard work from the work culture. It removes incentives for creativity. It has been seen as a boon for the star kids and bane for the struggling artists. Recently the death of the 34 year old actor has ignited the debate of nepotism through the social media activists. The paper attempts to study as to how far film industry has been the victim of nepotism and the loss suffered due to it. The paper also analyses the possible legal solutions to the problem of nepotism. Key words- Nepotism, film industry, star kids, film collection, production house, directors 14 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 6 ISSUE 6 ISSN 2455-4782 INTRODUCTION When professional decisions are hampered on the basis of personal relationships, nepotism can be said to have begun. The strong argument in its support is that when families run businesses, as a tradition, they want to carry it from generations to generations, and keep the profit in home which can be inherited by the family members alone. The term nepotism has been derived from Italian word nepotismo, which is based on Latin root nepos, which means nephew.1 There are various areas where nepotism exists, however, in this paper the nepotism is discussed in the light of film industry, commonly known as ‘Bollywood’. It’s been an old practice of over powering and influencing unethically an actor, to get the near and dear ones a job. A large section of our society is ignorant about the practice of nepotism, but at the same time is severely affected by it also.2 Nepotism can be seen from two points of views. Firstly, the intention is to receive reciprocal rewards as an expectation from another person. Reciprocity is based on image scoring (reputation) where individuals invest only in partners who have sufficiently helped them in past.3 Secondly, it is seen as popularizing one’s own family or community, for e.g. from Prithviraj Kapoor to Ranbir Kapoor, the business ran from first generation to fourth generation. Favoring relatives in benefit sharing follows the psychology of nepotism.4 In an interview Ranbir Kapoor himself confessed that he has been fortunate enough to get an opportunity because of his family ties.5 “I would like to work hard for my children so that they get the right opportunity, platform, the right first film. After that, it’s about your talent. So, yes, honestly, it does exist.” 1 Adam Bellow, In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History, https://web.archive.org/web/20100926013727/http://booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1742 visited on 20th June 2020 2 Elizabeth T George, Practice of Nepotism in the Indian Film Industry: A content analysis of MOM (2017) and Dhadak (2018), International Journal of Scientific Research and Review, Vol 7, Issue 5, UGC Journal, May 2019 3 Francesca Grippa, João Leitão, et al, Collaborative Innovation Networks: Building Adaptive and Resilient Organizations, Springer, 2018, P 119 4 ibid 5 https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/when-ranbir-kapoor-confessed-he-was-a-product-of-nepotism-said-i- would-like-to-work-hard-for-my-children-so-that-they-get-the-right-opportunity/story- L3s4WQHjpA58elsiq2gR8K.html#:~:text=Ranbir%20Kapoor%20has%20never%20minced,advantages%20as%20w ell%20as%20disadvantages.&text=He%20is%20a%20fourth%20generation,in%20the%20Indian%20film%20industr y. visited on 22nd June 2020 15 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 6 ISSUE 6 ISSN 2455-4782 RISE OF NEPOTISM Nepotism was always prevalent in our society. It existed in politics, when we have only seen rise of Gandhian Empire, the Yadavs, the Paswans, the Abdullahs, the Karunanidhi family etc. Since its subject matter is elite groups in the society, it hardly affected the sports. The reason is that the worth of sportsperson is measured by statistics, exception, however, always exists. It is a basic practice among those who have power or influence of relationship or partnership. It results in creating a legacy for the descendants of the same family. It started long back with the kings and bishops who invested their powers and position to the members of their family. Professed favouritism at the same workplace can cause dissatisfaction. In such a case the favoured ones, lack incentives to perform their responsibilities diligently. As a result there is loss of productivity.6 In a brief study reported in newspaper, it was revealed that during 1960-1980, the nepotism through family connection was 17 percent, which received a sharp increase of 40 percent by the year 2000. And now it’s almost double the number. There is variation in forms of nepotism. It has been seen that earlier the actors coming from major cities were 38 percent by 1980’s and it increased up-to 60 percent till 2016. This clearly shows decline in the accessibility of actors from small cities or towns.7 For years we have seen the glamour of industry facing up and downs, and most of it has been contributed by the star generations who were able to snatch number of opportunities from those who came to Bollywood to make their own fortune.8 We have seen many actors contributing towards the film industry socially and economically with their own hard work and talent.9 At the same time we have seen losses attributed towards the star kids in their debut films. 6 https://www.v13.in/2019/03/08/the-other-side-of-bollywood-nepotism/ visited on 21st June 2020 7 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/filmy-family-business-bollywood-nepotism-4828873/ visited on 21st June 2020 8 https://www.mensxp.com/entertainment/gossip/38343-roots-of-nepotism-in-bollywood-are-strong-enough-to-spoil- the-status-of-indian-films-forever.html visited on 21st June 2020 9 Dilip Kumar (born as Yusuf Khan) was one of twelve children in a family who lived in what is today called Pakistan. The family relocated to Bombay when Dilip was eight years old and he made his career out of scratch. Rajesh Khanna made it in films on account of winning an All India Talent Contest, organised by Filmfare, in 1965. Amitabh Bachchan's father was a poet. Rajinikanth was a bus conductor in Bangalore. Akshay Kumar was teaching martial arts in Mumbai and modelling simultaneously. Shah Rukh Khan, well, that's a contemporary legend every one knows. 16 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 6 ISSUE 6 ISSN 2455-4782 Fig 110 As against the loss we have seen many low budget films, far away from nepotism, doing well in their after release and contributing more towards industry.11 Name of the movie Budget (Crores) Collection (Crores) Stree ₹ 20 ₹ 100 Badhaai Ho ₹ 30 ₹ 132.05 Raazi ₹ 40 ₹ 158.77 Andhadhun ₹ 25 ₹ 72.37 Secret Superstar ₹ 15 ₹ 121.59 Mulk ₹ 18 ₹ 27.05 Hindi Medium ₹ 23 ₹ 70 Vicky Donor ₹ 5 ₹ 66.32 Kahaani ₹ 8 ₹ 104 No One Killed Jessica ₹ 9 ₹ 104 https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/standpoint/story/karan-johar-kangana-ranaut-bollywood-nepotism-sara-ali-khan- jhanvi-961613-2017-02-20 visited on 21st June 2020 10 Data sourced from movie and trade websites shows otherwise: of the 68 films released since 2000 as launch vehicles for star kids, 46 bombed. The biggest disaster so far has been director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s fantasy romantic thriller Mirzya (2016) that introduced actor Anil Kapoor’s son Harshvardhan. The movie lost nearly ₹ 56 crore. Director Harry Baweja’s science fiction thriller Love Story 2050 (2008) that launched his son Harman Baweja, also lost ₹ 29 crore.https://www.livemint.com/Consumer/9v2z8A0gHasIjA97GtTW9K/Bollywood-How-nepotism-fares-at-the- box-office.html visited on 21st June 2020 11 Available at https://www.fincash.com/l/movies/low-budget-bollywood-films-that-smashed-box-office and Available at https://www.scoopwhoop.com/small-budget-films-with-good-stories/ visited on 21st June 2020 17 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 6 ISSUE 6 ISSN 2455-4782 ROLE OF PRODUCTION HOUSES IN RAISING NEPOTISM The anecdote of nepotism does not end at being a star kid, it also assumes its importance with big production houses. These production houses also shares the plight of nepotism as evident from the following graph. They sign big budget films with the ‘insiders’, the so called star kids. Sometimes they remove the ‘outsiders’ the non-star kids from a movies so that they can give the chance to the insiders. Recently, actress Kriti Sanon, in an interview shared that she was the victim of nepotism when she was replaced by a star kid in a movie by a big production house.12 Fig 213 The analysis of the above data shows that the production houses have taken relationship ties and most favoured actors as a lead in the films. It also implies reducing the role of actors who failed miserable to come up under this category. 12 Available at https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/television-news/kriti-sanon-opens-up-about- being-replaced-by-a-starkid-in-films.html visited on 22nd June 2020 13 Available at https://www.livemint.com/Consumer/FZftXzIO9oQt9KMesWN9eI/Which-Bollywood-producer- scores-highest-on-the-Nepotism-Inde.html visited on 21st June 2020 18 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 6 ISSUE 6 ISSN 2455-4782 ROLE OF DIRECTORS It is equally important to see the role played by directors in making big budget films with top production houses and swaying away the newcomers in the field of production.