The ‘Panga’ actress Richa Chadha on her blog opens up about the nepotism debate relighted after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. She wrote, “It is being said that the industry seems to be divided between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’? In my opinion the Hindi film industry and its entire eco-system is only divided between kind and unkind people.”
https://twitter.com/RichaChadha/status/1283683498461556736?s=20
Richa further added that she being an outsider feels that the Bollywood industry works as a food chain. “In the brief time that I have spent here as the first person of my lineage, my assessment is that the industry operates like a food chain. People are scoundrels when they know they can get away with it. Those who are anguished today have themselves been cruel to their subordinates. There are insiders who can be kind and generous, and outsiders who are punitive egomaniacs. In the nascent phase of my career, I was often ‘cut to size’ by outsiders. It took me all my strength to recover from various forms of subtle sabotage. But this is not about me. The tragic part is that everyone here has experienced a version of this.”
Talking about nepotism, she said, “I don’t hate ‘star kids. Why are we expected to? If someone’s father is a star, they are born into that household the same as we are to our folks. Are you ashamed of your parents… This is a hateful and nonsense argument. I am a self-made person in this business. Will you tell my children to be ashamed of my struggle to reach where I have, for instance?”
“Sushant and I started out by work shopping together in a theatre group. I was sharing a 700 sq ft apartment in Andheri West with a friend from Delhi. Sushant would pick me up on his bike and we would head to the rehearsal, for which I was grateful. I wasn’t poor or broke. But I can’t say money was not a consideration when I had to head out to do an ad audition for a skin brand. I would worry about my make up melting in the auto rickshaw before I even arrived. This was would NEVER happen with a ‘star-kid’, and if it does, they will be lauded for being humble enough to take the rickshaw in the first place. But I don’t resent their privilege.” Richa wrote while recalling a story from her struggling days.
Richa mentioned on her blog about the hateful messages Sushant’s friends have been receiving. She wrote, “I am surprised by our collective lack of dismay or shock at how low we have stooped in our discourse. The social media timelines of the deceased actor’s friends and girlfriend are littered with filth! Who are these ‘fans’? I checked out a few profiles online. The same gutter mouths that abused Sushant when he took a stand on the ‘Padmavat’ issue are now abusing his loved ones for ‘not being there’ for him.”
She shared that several filmmakers who shared condolence messages a month ago are the same people who “have run down movies of their peers pre-release, have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them at the last minute and several have repeatedly forecasted ‘iska kuch nahi hoga’.”
