Neha Choudhary (BOMBAY TIMES; January 26, 2020)

Nepotism seems to be a never-ending debate in Bollywood, with the topic recently hitting the headlines again, after Ananya Panday shared her point of view on the subject on a chat show and Gully Boy actor Siddhant Chaturvedi hit back with a witty response.

Actor Shreyas Talpade, who was recently in Jaipur to shoot for a reality quiz show, opened up about the issue. Shreyas, who himself comes from a nonfilmi background, shared, “Of course, there is nepotism. Are you kidding me? But if you keep thinking about that, it is not going to take you anywhere. Siddhant Chaturvedi gave a fantastic answer to Ananya Panday when he said, ‘Jahaan humare sapne poore hote hain, wahan inke struggle shuru hote hain.’”

“An ordinary person dreams of becoming a hero in a Karan Johar film. Par aap (referring to Ananya Panday) unki pehli picture mein hi heroine ban gayi. Kya struggle kiya aapne? Her struggle has started now, as she has to prove herself as an actor. But coming from a filmi background, it won’t be difficult for her to get three-four films. Three-four bade banner ki filmein milna bahut hai,” he said.

‘AN OUTSIDER FACES A LOT OF STRUGGLE’
Talking about an outsider’s struggle in the industry, Shreyas said, “An outsider faces a lot of struggle to get his first film. Badi mushkil se usko dusri film milti hai and it becomes even more important to have this second film do well at the box office. Otherwise, he or she will be branded a one-film wonder. In logon ke saath (referring to star kids) aisa nahi hota. So, let’s not kid ourselves. But agar main yeh sab sochta rahunga, to apna kaam kab karunga? Instead of worrying about nepotism, I like to carve my path with my hard work.”

On the work front, Shreyas was last seen in Setters (2019), which tanked at the box office. “The first thing has to be the script and a tight screenplay. Sometimes, people start getting indulgent about certain things and end up spending more than the film deserves. Then it gets difficult to recover that amount, something that happened with Setters,” he said.

‘SOME KIDS TOLD ME THAT THEY WOULD LOVE TO SEE ME IN A SERIOUS FILM’
When asked about projects in the pipeline, he said he is reading a few scripts and is also planning to produce a show. Has he become selective? “I was talking to a few children and they told me that they have mostly seen me doing comedy and would love to see me in a serious film. I told them that I started my Bollywood career with a serious film, Iqbal (2005). Then I did Dor (2006). But some people felt that I couldn’t do comedy. So, I took it as a challenge. I did comedy and people loved it,” he sais, adding, “That was also the era of a lot of multi-starrer comedy films. I was a part of a few of them. Also, when you are new to the industry, you don’t want to say no to biggies. Then one day, you see yourself doing only comedies. Now, it has become a challenge to prove myself again in serious films. Setters was an attempt to get back to the serious genre,” he said.