Kajol on nepotism: It's a debate brought by two personalities...DTNpg4 - Page 4

You have to remember that's it's only recently that BW was considered an industry by the Indian government. It was after that that corporate money and bankers were able to come in. (A lot of them failed and were driven away but that's another issue.) Prior to that, BW was basically a mom and pop type of business where people were putting in their own money or getting scary black loans from the mafia. When you're shouldering so much responsibility and there's the possibility of going bankrupt if a movie flops, why would they go looking for random outsiders to star in them? Nobody is obligated to go through all that and put up their own money to help random strangers. Why would they? They have a reason to take risks for their kids and family members but why would they do that for others?

In case of star kids, the audience also automatically has interest in them. People are curious to see if Amitabh Bachchan's kid is anything like him or if Rishi Kapoor has any talent like Raj Kapoor. There is automatic interest when you put them in movies. Ranbir and Sonam became stars before Saawariya even released. Having them in a movie is beneficial because there's a minimum guarantee that a movie will make at least a certain amount of money. If they're bad, then the audience will stop coming and they will eventually flop. But initially, at least the first movie, it's less risky to have star kids than complete unknowns.

Nepotism exists in every other industry too. People get internships for their kids in their own companies. Some companies even have special programs especially for employee children for summer jobs, etc. Aunts and uncles will tell their family members first of openings they know about and recommend their names. Anyone will get a job easier through their connections with friends and family members over randomly submitting a resume where you don't know anyone.