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No entry for outsiders
The way star children are being wooed by filmmakers in Bollywood, it's impossible for outsiders to get a foothold.
Is Bollywood becoming impervious to acting talent from outside? Going by the way star children are being wooed by every filmmaker on the Bollywood block, it would seem as though it's impossible for outsiders to get a foothold in the industry.
From Dilip Kumar to Dharmendra to Rajesh Khanna to Amitabh Bachchan, every major star in the earlier decades came in from the cold. But not any more.
A young, fairly well-known filmmaker who made an extremely watchable though unsuccessful film with three star kids in the lead sees a frighteningly cloistered situation growing in the industry. "I've a script where I want to cast Sammir Dattani in the lead. I saw him in Uff Kya Jadoo MohabbatHai. Though the film was terrible, the boy makes you sit up and notice him. He's genuine star material. But I can't seem to convince my producer to cast him," said the director.
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"I'm not denying that some of the star kids like Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan are immensely talented. But all of them are certainly not star material. They're being forced down audiences' gullets just because they have the privilege of being from within the industry.
"I'm told that Kareena Kapoor is being offered a staggering Rs 25 million to co-star in producer Harry Baweja's son's debut film. This is utterly ridiculous! Kareena for all her talent and beauty has still to prove herself. All her hyped films have gone down the drain. Why should she get this kind of money, and for what purpose?"
Like it or not the clamour for star kids is growing. Sharmila Tagore's daughter Soha Ali Khan has been seen in only a Bengali film so far. Yet she's being wooed by a dozen-odd filmmakers. Rituparno Ghosh is currently shooting his new Bengali film Antarmahal with Soha and Abhishek Bachchan.
