If Family Counts Then Accept It Too!

A star kid says that whatever he has achieved is only because of his hard work and struggle, and his scintillating family background has nothing to do with it. Furthermore, the media blares that at such a young age (of 22or 23), it is quite an achievement to be debuting in a Bollywood movie.

Now I would like to deal with the two sentences written above.

First is about the hard-work & struggle sermon that the star-kids preach to the naïve world. How come it happens that so sincerely hardworking and struggling souls (whose parents and brethren happen to be from film industry) finds only acting as a suitable career choice? Because, incidentally, entering IITs & IIMs are also about hard work and struggles, but the thought of cracking exams for IITs and IIMs don’t flit through their minds.

After so much of brainstorming with family members about their career, they end up at doing only movies as their career choices. They deduce that only doing movies is the ultimate paragon for hard graft and struggle.

And being able to fetch a movie for oneself all alone is quite a matter of pride but to take the pride when it is not a reality is all about misleading oneself and others. 

The star kids feel that if they divulge that they get movies because of their parents and their network, they will be considered a less hero. Because a hero is someone who achieves everything through his own abilities. And they think that if they acknowledge that their status is because of their lineage, they will shred the image of a self-made hero that most people adore and believe in. But they forget that people are not so uninitiated in the ways of the world.

It is no rocket science to figure out that why in whole population of India (and especially that part of population which strives to become a movie actor) the eyes of producers, directors succeed to find acting skills in only those who have a familial cinematic pedigree. 

I am not against film actors’ children becoming film actors but the word of wisdom that entails hard work and struggle that comes out freely from the mouth of these star kids is hard to digest and sounds cosmetic.  They should frankly tell the world that they are there because of their family background. And what this candid remark will do is that it will dispel the aura that is created using the words like hard work and struggle. This way many young boys and girls, from humble backgrounds, who leave for Mumbai in search of a career in Bollywood will stop believing that only hard work and struggle can bear the fruits for them in the Indian tinsel town. 

I am not trying to belittle the grand philosophy of hard work and struggle in life but just trying to establish that the hard work & struggle per se is not the ticket to Bollywood that is advocated by these star kids more often than not.

Second thing is about media vehemently glorifying the “young age” tag. When they say this (young age), they seem to establish that the young age itself is responsible for their achievements. But this is not the reality and they know it well. But only to sugar coat a promotional piece of writing they use such tags. 

Otherwise if only the young age had the miraculous powers to make one debut in a Hindi movie, we would have got dozens of debuts on every weekday. By writing that someone has achieved such a great achievement tantamount to debuting in a movie at a young age of 22 is kind of belittling the efforts of all those 22 years of youth who really work hard and struggle to get a job in Indian employment milieu.

I am not saying that media should not celebrate the opportunities that these privileged star kids get but the language should show respect for others who are not lucky enough to have that kind of opportunities.

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