{"id":1209,"date":"2016-03-12T06:01:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2016-03-12T06:01:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T06:01:33","slug":"nepotism-ranbir-rishi-kapoor-karan-johar-saif-starkids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1209","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Parents: The Nepotism Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

M<\/span>eet Simba. Simba is an unbearably adorable lion cub who dreams of ruling his territory one day. But Simba can\u2019t stay out of trouble; he\u2019s got a knack for flirting with danger and ending up at the mercy of the savage hyenas. Luckily, big daddy Mufasa is never far away, pouncing in to scare off anyone who dares threaten his cute cub. Simba has a fuzzy little growl, Mufasa roars fiercely, and all the haters scatter, leaving the lion king and his prince in peace.\n\nThat\u2019s a perfect plot for a Disney movie intended for ages three and above. However, if you replace the stuffed toy-resembling animated lions with human adults in flesh and blood, things start looking a lot shiftier. Let\u2019s look at our stand-ins, shall we?\n\nIn place of Simba, we have Ranbir Kapoor, who is a 34-year-old man and the executive producer on his own film, <\/p>Jagga Jasoos<\/em><\/a>. With a budget of over \u20b9100 crore and a box office collection of less than half that amount, the film<\/a> turned into Ranbir\u2019s own version of Simba\u2019s Elephant Graveyard.\n\nThe evil, nasty hyenas are film critics and audiences, led by director Anurag Basu. Hyena-in-Chief Basu apparently delayed<\/a> the film\u2019s release by two years, and put the icing on the cake by refusing to show the film to producers (our Simba included) before it hit screens. Given the scenario, how was Ranbir Kapoor to know that his latest venture would tank so miserably?\n

Still, he managed to stick around long enough to pick up a National Award for Hum Tum. He would also prefer if you don\u2019t pay attention to the fact that mommy dearest was the censor board chief at the time.<\/blockquote>\nIf that\u2019s a question that never occurred to you, Mufasa\u2019s got you covered. Our real-world Mufasa is Twitter\u2019s most savvy sexagenarian: @chintskap. For the normies, that\u2019s Rishi Kapoor. In true big daddy fashion, he put Basu on blast in the media<\/a>, laying blame for the film\u2019s failure in a neat pile at Basu\u2019s feet, far, far away from Ranbir. Of course, Basu\u2019s need for extra time and refusal to screen the film were clearly the work of an \u201cirresponsible director\u201d and not of an artist seeking creative independence. According to Rishi Kapoor, Ranbir needs sympathy and understanding, instead of derision, for professional missteps because he is a cuddly little cub and not a grown man.\n\nSo Rishi comes out roaring for his boy, shielding him from critics, haters, and the world in general. Some will argue that the man is acting out of his protective parental instincts, and what\u2019s wrong with that? To them I have a counter-question: Does a 34-year-old need parenting? Or is picking between Katrina and Deepika the only decision Ranbir is capable of making on his own? Has it occurred to Chintu that his belligerence is only making Ranbir look like a Sid who hasn\u2019t woken up yet?\n\nRishi Kapoor\u2019s fiery reaction to his son\u2019s failure also comes at a very inconvenient time for the Kapoor khandaan. Thanks to a certain Queen<\/a>, Bollywood has discovered its very own N-word. The koffee went cold months ago, but the nepotism debate is still raging. Bollywood\u2019s established clans like the Kapoors and the Khans have been called out publicly for favouring their offspring over the thousands of struggling outsiders scratching out a miserable existence in Lokhandwala and Versova flats. Too often are innocent, movie-going audiences subjected to the sight of Tusshar Kapoor and his like trying to convince us that they can act, sing, and dance.\n\nIt\u2019s definitely a good thing that someone is calling out these star kids for their delusions of grandeur, but nepotism is a two-way street. Star kids are one side of the coin, star parents are the other. Like Rishi Kapoor, star parents end up using their celebrity status to protect their children from the consequences of their missteps. While Sr Kapoor\u2019s defence of Ranbir can\u2019t\u00a0be classified as\u00a0nepotism, it is the foundation\u00a0of this malaise. This kind of cushioning from\u00a0the blame is something Bollywood\u2019s outsiders don\u2019t have the privilege of.\n\nRishi and Ranbir Kapoor aren\u2019t even the most egregious example. For that, we have to look toward Bollywood\u2019s biggest brat and his daddy \u2013 Salman and Salim Khan. Whether it\u2019s an offensive tweet<\/a>, an offhand comment<\/a>, or straight-up manslaughter<\/a>, Salim is always in Salman\u2019s corner, propping his boy up on the twin crutches of denial and delusion. Sallu bhai, amazing human that he be, decided to pay this goodwill forward, when he took alleged girlfriend abuser and Brat-in-Training Sooraj Pancholi<\/a> under his wing to launch him in a blockbuster film.\n\nStar kids are the raw fuel on which the engine of Bollywood\u2019s nepotism runs, but their parents and mentors are the oil that keeps the engine running along nice and smooth. They serve as a hype crew, disaster-management squad, and safety net for the fledgling careers of their little ones. For all his talk of eugenics<\/a> and being bred for your role in life, Saif Ali Khan\u2019s acting career wouldn\u2019t have survived his initial years as a hero ka dost in the industry if he didn\u2019t have the comfort of being Sharmila Tagore\u2019s son. Still, he managed to stick around long enough to pick up a National Award for Hum Tum<\/em>. He would also prefer if you don\u2019t pay attention to the fact that mommy dearest was the censor board chief at the time.\n\nBollywood\u2019s Mufasas might do well to re-watch the old classic Lion King<\/em>. As long as Mufasa is around to protect Simba, the cub never realises his true potential. It took Mufasa falling into the midst of a stampede to sever Simba\u2019s dependency. Only when Simba\u2019s safety net is snatched away does he grow into his potential and assume his place as the rightful lion king. Maybe our filmy parents would do well to go the same way.\n\nLong Live the King.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Star kids are the raw fuel on which the engine of Bollywood\u2019s nepotism runs, but their parents are the oil that keeps the engine running along nice and smooth. Rishi Kapoor and Salim Khan are star examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[141,2046,2047,240,2048,2049,2050,1161],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-bollywood","tag-iifa","tag-kangana","tag-karan-johar","tag-nepotism","tag-saif","tag-starkids","tag-varun-dhawan"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the Parents: The Nepotism Edition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star kids are the raw fuel on which the engine of Bollywood\u2019s nepotism runs, but their parents are the oil that keeps the engine running along nice and smooth. 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