Bollywood has always been accused of favouring star children. The debate around nepotism keeps cropping up every time a star kid is launched in the industry, mostly by a prominent filmmaker. But have all actors who belong to influential showbiz families made big in the business? No, there are ample examples where star-children failed to take their parents’ legacy forward despite having all support on their platter. One of the biggest examples is actress Tanisha Mukerji.
Mukerji is the daughter of veteran actor Tanuja, sister of iconic star Kajol and sister-in-law of superstar Ajay Devgn. Rani Mukerji and filmmaker Ayan Mukerji are his cousins. The actress started her acting career in 2003 but a series of box-office duds thwarted her career on the very onset.
She is now looking forward to exploring the world of short stories. During an interaction, Mukerji was asked about her career and the hot topic of nepotism. “Nepotism is a rubbish argument. It is just a fancy word that people are using out of the context a lot of times. In today’s industry, if you are not working hard, you are not being seen. It is hard work. There are pros and cons to everything. A person, who is not a star kid and makes it big in the industry, they will talk about how difficult it was to get their first break. But they do not have to deal with the preconceived notion that the whole world had about a star kid,” said the actress.
She went on to add, “I should have been the No. 1 example of nepotism. I have got Rani (Mukerji) on one side, Ajay (Devgn) on one side. My mother is Tanuja, my sister is Kajol and I also have Ayan (cousin, director) in the family. I am the number one poster child of nepotism failing. All those people screaming nepotism, look at me and then talk. Some people will have a problem with what I have said, but some people will also say that she makes sense.”
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