The nepotism debate was kicked off by Kangana Ranaut in the fifth season of Koffee With Karan where she accused the latter of being a ‘movie mafia’ and ‘flag-bearer of nepotism’. What added fuel to the fire was Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan chanting ‘nepotism rocks’ at the IIFA Awards soon after. Ever since, the insider versus outsider debate has gained ground with many actors coming to the fore and speaking about how they lost chances due to favouritism within the industry.
In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, veteran actor Neena Gupta reveals that she also lost out on big projects for being an outsider with no industry connections. She tells us, “I was from NSD and was a good actor. I was very new and thought that if I do one role in a Hindi film, I would be flooded with offers, but that didn’t happen. That’s why I feel jealous of young actors. I keep thinking of all the amazing parts I would get to play if I had started my career at this point because OTT has changed everything.”
The 64-year-old confesses that she still doesn’t feel like an insider despite working for the last four decades. “I feel like an outsider even now. I’ve been dissuaded from raising my voice for something that was wrong. I was told to let it go and that nobody would listen to me because I’m not as famous as another co-star. This is how this industry works,” she tells us.
The Lust Stories 2 actor goes on to reveal that she still faces rejection quite frequently and shares, “I still give auditions and get rejected. I went to LA this one time for a day just to meet (Christopher) Nolan [for Tenet]. But Dimple (Kapadia) got the part even though she didn’t travel to LA to meet him.”
Walking down the memory lane, she further states that casting couch along was another reason why she had to only play small parts in indie films. “As a new actor, it was very difficult land a plum role. Casting couch was rampant at that time. It was impossible to go and meet big producers. The only person I could go and meet was Shyam Benegal since he was also from NSD. But the main role would still be reserved for Smita Patil.”
Gupta adds, “Shyam, Govind Nihalani and Saeed Akhtar Mirza would cast Smita and Shabana Azmi for the main roles. The next option was Deepti Naval. As for the rest of us, we would get very small parts. I did four films with Shyam but never got the main role.”
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