Bollywood entertainer Swara Bhasker, who is expected to make a ‘comeback’ (??) with a film Jahaan Chaar Yaar, in an interview with India Today compared Bollywood with Rahul Gandhi and claimed that how Bollywood has been ‘Pappufied’. She said that since everyone kept calling him ‘Pappu’, people of India eventually started believing he is ‘Pappu’. However, Swara said she has met him and he is a ‘perfectly intelligent and articulate man’.
Bhasker then lamented that similar ‘Pappufication’ has happened to Bollywood too. Amongst other things, like bad script and bad Hinduphobic content, Bollywood has also been facing heat over nepotism charges as some ‘stars’ are identified as actors only because their parents, siblings, uncles have been part of the film industry.
Swara Bhasker, herself, can be an extended nepo-kid because her mother, Ira Bhasker, has also been a member of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a statutory body under the information and broadcasting ministry, during UPA era. Ira Bhasker also teaches ‘cinema studies’ at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Rahul Gandhi, too, has been often criticised for being a politician only because his father, mother, grandmother and great grandfather were mainstream politicians in independent India. Many have believed he should have been Prime Minister only because his ancestors have been one.
It takes someone coming from place of privilege to identify with someone who also comes from place of privilege.