Pranutan: What can I do if people want to believe in masala stories about nepotism, and not the truth

Pranutan Bahl, daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl, says everybody in showbiz has their own journey, even if a film is produced for them by family members.

She began her career with a film produced by Salman Khan, her father — Mohnish Bahl — is an actor himself, and she is the granddaughter of the legendary Nutan. So, it was easy for everyone to assume that Pranutan Bahl had it all easy in the film industry.

Actor Pranutan is the daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl.

The debate around star kids and people with connections having it easy refuses to die down. Ask the actor about being called a product of it, and she says, “I feel a little strange about it, and wish people didn’t feed into sensationalism so much. I wish they would ask us our individual stories.”

October 10, 2016 was the day she walked in for her first audition. And the audition rounds lasted till 2018, which is when she was noticed by the makers of Notebook, her debut film.

“I never told anybody I belonged to a film family. I would get the brutal opinion of a casting director inly that way. I didn’t want any ‘how can we say no to her’ or ‘we have to call her for a second round’. I don’t lie to myself, I don’t want to be in a cocoon. Notebook was a five hour audition, it was not easy,” reveals Pranutan, 27.

Even Salman, she shares, didn’t know about her being cast until the team informed him, contrary to the opinion that he cast her himself, owing to his friendship with her dad who he shared screen space in multiple films in the 1990s.

“He called dad and said, ‘You are dead, your daughter is going to be a heroine, it was a good enough audition!’ That’s when he (Khan) also got to know. As far as the nepotism debate therefore is concerned, I don’t know,” she states.

People, in fact, don’t believe her when she narrates this incident. “They are quick to judge. Everybody has their own journey, even if a film is produced for them by family members. I’m not glorifying my journey. I chose this for myself. I don’t understand when there are times I told people my journey, and they say ‘what rubbish, you are lying’. If you want to believe in masala stories, then what can I do?,” Pranutan ends with a question.