Milana Rao (BOMBAY TIMES; August 22, 2020)

In a career spanning over 25 years, Suniel Shetty has been seen in a variety of films. At the beginning of his career, and for the most part of his years in the industry, he has been among Bollywood’s most prominent action heroes. His daughter, Athiya Shetty, made her foray in films with Hero (2015) and has been seen in Mubarakan (2017) and Motichoor Chaknachoor (2019), while his son, Ahan Shetty, is gearing up to make his debut as an actor. Like many other star kids, they’ve also found themselves in the middle of the raging nepotism debate in Bollywood.

Talking to ETimes, Suniel says, “This whole talk about nepotism hurts. It is something that is there in every field. Is my son or daughter not allowed to dream of becoming an actor just because their father is an actor? Does that mean the dream of that child needs to be squashed? An industrialist’s son dreams of taking over the business after his father. Is that dream wrong? A kid sees all the love their parents received from their fans. Is it wrong for them to want the same for themselves? People run to the best school and try all their influences to get their child admission. Is that wrong, too? I don’t know where this is coming from.”

He further adds, “I run an online hunt for talent. There are 2,70,000 kids on that platform for who I am trying to get work. I ask everybody to please give them an opportunity. If two of my kids are trying to get work, there are two lakh people for whom I am trying to get work. It is very unfair that only the industry is looked at like that. People are being called names and being abused while the industry has been giving so much back. All I can say is that I request people to look at it differently. Look at each kid as an individual. Yes, groupism exists in Bollywood, but that is there everywhere. One has to learn to live with it. I believe it is not fair.”

When asked about how his children, Athiya and Ahan, feel about the current situation, he explains, “For them, nepotism itself means that they are a part of it. They ask me if it means that they cannot dream of becoming an actor. They know I didn’t come from a film family. I never got a break from a big banner. Even my kids got their breaks from somewhere else. It is not that I have forced them into it. It is because people have seen something in them that they have been given an opportunity. Their struggle will continue if they don’t deliver. They might have that advantage of being a star kid in their first film, but after that, it is the audience, the subject of their films and their co-actors, who finally make or break their career.”