With the nepotism debate making a comeback in Bollywood after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a paragraph from actor Ayushmann Khurrana’s book has been making rounds of social media.
Ayushmann Khurrana wrote a book called Cracking the code: My journey in Bollywood in which he tells a tale when he was rejected by producer Karan Johar in the year 2007. In the book, Ayushmann says that Karan Johar was one of the first Bollywood celebrities he interviewed while he was working as a radio jockey. At an award function in 2007, Ayushmann asked Karan for his number and told him that he wants to be an actor. He writes,
“Karan gives me the landline number to his office when I met him. I should have taken a hint there and then. But I was so excited! I even planned exactly when I would make the call. Sometime around 11:30 a.m. so that he would be done with breakfast and would be available to talk. The next day I dial the number they had given me. This told me that Karan wasn’t in the office. The day after I called him again. They said he was busy. And finally, my bubble burst when the subsequent day they told me bluntly that they would only work with stars and can’t work with me.”
In 2018 when Karan Johar invited Ayushmann to his chat show Koffee with Karan Ayushmann chose to tell him the story. Karan replied,
“I gave you the right number. That was very sweet of me! I must have thought that you have potential.”
Sushant’s Death Has Sparked Debate
On Sunday, Bollywood woke up to another tragic news as the young actor Sushant Singh Rajput passed away due to suicide. An old clip of the actor talking about nepotism has been making the rounds of social media. The video dates back to the International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony. In the ceremony, Sushant said,
“Well, yes nepotism is there and it’s everywhere. It’s just not in Bollywood. So yeah, you can’t do anything about it but yes, nepotism can co-exist and nothing would happen. But at the same time, if you deliberately don’t allow the right talent to come up, then there is a problem. Then the whole structure of the industry would collapse one day.”
Source: India Times
