Actor Sahil Salathia, who earned appreciation for his recent web series Adhura, is grateful that audiences liked him and credits OTT for giving him that platform to showcase his acting chops. However, he points out the existence of nepotism in the industry that leads to bias, resulting in many actors not getting a chance to star in big films.

“This is mostly when casting is being done for big-budget commercial films; you see mostly family kids being taken for main parts... A lot of times, it seems the roles are written for kids from film families, and that’s why the main casting happens like that. These commercial films are like launchpads for nepotistic kids,” laments the actor.

The 35-year-old goes on to share the challenges faced by non-film family actors, citing his own struggle. “It’s not that your parents need to be movie stars; they just have to be from the industry to arrange meetings for you. It’s just about having that connection in the business, which helps you in your first step,” he states, further highlighting the unfair advantage star kids enjoy without necessarily having the required talent.

“There are many film family kids who are horrendous at what they do. Without naming, some are actually just good at working out, having an eight-pack, or just doing gymnastics the entire day, but have zero talent. No dialogue delivery, no voice modulation, and the homework is zero. This is not your skill as an actor,” he says.

Crediting streaming space for providing a level-playing field, the actor opines, “You see way more meaningful and substantial roles on the web. OTT is a huge blessing for everyone, because that’s where the content-driven scripts are, along with parts that are well-written as compared to commercial films.”