Bollywood kids enter stardom before they learn to eat. The media is bloated with posts covering whereabouts of these star kids, because it sells. The heritage of some of these families such as the Khans, Kapoors and the Nawabs of Pataudi, can be traced back to their first generation, entering cinema in the mid-1900s.
No, nepotism is not an isolated phenomenon that exists only in Bollywood; but its effects have been catastrophic for Indian cinema. Most of the filmy families who create the so-called ‘escapist’ cinema, apparently refuse to ‘chase’ the Oscars. Well, to correct them, they refuse to chase any real content. If logic were to watch a formula Bollywood movie today, it would stab itself in the eye in the first 15 minutes. They are the same drab formula stories laced up with clichés reeking of misogyny. The cast is studded with eye candies because acting skills have nothing to do with the actual profession.
Take the case of the popularity of Bollywood and Japanese content. Japanese content is popular because its quality is higher than that of even Hollywood. Indian movies, on the other hand, became a laughing stock for channels. ‘Pretentious Movie reviews’ which was one such YouTube channel became a huge sensation for pointing out the idiocy of Bollywood flicks. In fact, Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath, who wrote that series, today are one of the most popular comedians in the country.
The purpose of current mainstream Indian cinema is not to make better movies, or, for that matter, anything remotely related to the art. These films are made simply because people come out in masses to fawn over the stars. Before they are released, hashtags on social media are manufactured to make the movie trend. A lot of paid news portrays orchestrated interviews of such celebrities along with the news. Once it is released, it thrives on a guarantee. The reason nepotism comes in here is because Bollywood has become a classic example of oligopoly where the supply is carefully controlled by a handful of studios.
The entry barriers are so huge and conditioning has been done for so long that the majority of their target audience have never really been exposed to any quality content. The business is sustainable because this elite club of people are the same ones who produce, act, and earn by the virtue of their birth.
But, this also does not imply ours is a rich industry. On the contrary, Bollywood movies are made on dinky budgets, as compared to Hollywood. The average production cost of an upmarket movie is just $3 million. The gross realisation of Bollywood to the global box office revenue is less than 2 billion dollars. In contrast, a Hollywood movie like Marvel’s Black Panther earned worldwide collection of more than a billion dollars alone. The profits in Bollywood are high only because earnings across from across the country are distributed amongst a few filmy families in plush colonies of Mumbai.
The magnitude of its effects can be measured by the fact that despite being the biggest film industry in the world, Bollywood hasn’t won a single Oscar for ‘best foreign film’. Today, the market is left so uncompetitive that any movie which is even slightly content-driven, no matter how badly executed or copied it is, instantly becomes a big deal. We have set the bar so low that the absence of commercialism is a critical acclaim in itself.
But it is not that this has not seen resistance. The movement of Indian Parallel Cinema started years ago at the same time nepotism was ruling the industry. A lot of actors in these movies worked for free just because they wanted to dedicate themselves to the art and provide an alternative. There was a commitment to harness an artistic Indian cinema culture. The industry produced some gems with movies such as Mirch Masala, Ankur, Aakrosh, Sparsh, Mandi, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Saransh, Party. Today, the legacy of such movies and film makers has almost disappeared.
Creating a good script is not enough. Only a fraction of content-oriented films manage to mint money at the box office. There is still a huge gamble that a producer would play in case he had to actually invest in such a content-driven project. Therefore, most of quality films in India resonate with low budgeted production.
With the advent of Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime and other online streaming channels, it may seem on the face of it that this scenario may change. But these are still premium services catering to a miniscule population which is very different from the traditional audience that Bollywood targets; their effect on this business will virtually be insignificant. Additionally, it is still not safe to assume that these places are free of nepotism, considering many people appointed at Indian headquarters of these online giants have been selected from the same club.
Does this imply Indians don’t make good cinema anymore? Well on that front, it is still difficult to come to that conclusion, considering India is still exporting its best technicians, animators and VFX artistes to Hollywood. Regional cinema has proven time and again the enormous potential that our country holds. Majority of the National Awards every year are bagged by regional films. Even this time the National Award for the Best Director was won by Jayaraj for Bhayanakam (Malayalam). The award for Best Feature Film was awarded to Village Rockstars (Assamese) and the list goes on.
But, for all its worth, we still cannot blame nepotism for Bollywood’s state. They’re just running business like any other shopkeeper in the country. Maybe we need to discredit their bad products. They do not owe us anything; we are literally paying for it. We watch it and unfortunately we want to watch more of it. This situation exists because of our own ignorance.
