I remember as a kid staring wide-eyed at Bollywood movies. Such is the norm in my country, and there are few things that rival the excitement little kids feel while watching Bollywood stars. However, I was more wide-eyed when my mother started linking together my favorite movie stars in a family tree. “The Kapoors were all related, and Oh, did you know Amitabh Bachchan is the father of Abhishek Bachchan?” She said smugly. For me, this was like my mother telling me Santa wasn’t real. I was completely baffled and asked her why things were this way. She just laughed, “Things have always been this way.”

It might come as a surprise to Western audiences, but Bollywood is completely dominated by nepotism. A successful actor’s children, grandchildren, and even nephews are the vast majority of the people appearing on the big screen. A couple of outliers do sprout up here and there, but they are truly a minority. 

Western audiences must be appalled by this news. ‘What a big serving of injustice, ’ they might be thinking, and they would be right. In India, however, nepotism is only bashed when these ‘nepo babies’ give a bad performance. When they do end up giving a good performance, everybody says, ‘Well, maybe nepotism isn’t that bad after all’ or ‘if this is the outcome of nepotism, sign me up!’ 

But they have it all wrong: Nepotism isn’t wrong because it churns out bad movies or destroys the art form. One of my favourite actors is Ranbir Kapoor, who is the son of Rishi Kapoor, one of the most famous Indian actors of his time, who is the son of Raj Kapoor, a famous actor in his own time. Ranbir Kapoor may be a 'nepo baby' through and through, but I believe nepotism is inherently wrong even when it produces a star of his caliber. My point isn’t about whether the system can produce talent; it's about the fairness of the system itself.

Nepotism is wrong because it snatches the opportunity from the grasp of ordinary people and places it in the hands of the ‘chosen one’. 

However, this seems like a slippery slope, because intelligence is also a privilege, and so are the connections you are born into. What’s the difference between the two? People don’t really look down on naturally intelligent people just because they will take a spot at a school from a kid who isn’t as intelligent. 

Well, the key difference here is that the gap between natural intelligence can be bridged by hard work. That isn’t the case with nepotism. No matter how talented, how hardworking, a ‘nobody’ is, if 'daddy' pulls enough strings, the son is going to get the part. The industry is built on connections, and directors don’t want to anger powerful actors, breaking an unspoken rule that has been set in stone. 

This sometimes results in bad movies and, more importantly, snatched opportunities from the less fortunate. 

I don’t know how to fix this injustice, or if it can be fixed at all. It seems a miracle is required, and I certainly don't have the power to bring one about. So, until that miracle happens, I’ll be here, impatiently waiting for the next Ranbir Kapoor movie.