4 min readNew DelhiSep 9, 2025 12:34 PM IST
Many years ago, actor Saif Ali Khan had to apologise publicly to Kangana Ranaut when he declared, along with Varun Dhawan and Karan Johar, that ‘nepotism rocks‘. This happened in the aftermath of the controversy that Kangana had stirred during an appearance on Karan’s Koffee with Karan, where Saif was present. She’d called Karan the ‘flagbearer of nepotism’, and it’s a tag that seems to have stuck. Even today, conversations about nepotism in the film industry are common, and every star-kid trying to break into the business is asked about their privilege. Over two decades ago, the scrutiny wasn’t as intense, and Kajol’s sister, Tanishaa Mukerji, had the grandest of launches. In a recent interview, Tanishaa said that she supports nepotism and products of nepotism, and accused ‘outsiders’ in the film industry of leeching off of it.
In an interview with Pinkvilla, Tanishaa was asked about the bashing that Bollywood has been taking in recent years. She said, “We say ‘Make in India’, but Bollywood is made in India already; Indian actors, Indian subjects… Why aren’t we getting those concessions? Why are we being penalised? Why are we being Bollywood-bashed constantly? This is something that really hurts me, because I’m a Bollywood baby. I love my film industry, I love my film fraternity, I love people coming into my fraternity, I love people born in this industry, I love my nepo babies, and I want to know why we are being bashed!”
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Tanishaa continued, “I’ll tell you something very clearly. When you come from a film family, you think of the film industry first. You’re not somebody who’s here to take from the film industry. Yes, you want to be an actor, you want to be a director, you want to be a producer in the film industry, but you will always think of giving to the film industry. Somewhere, I feel, people who come from outside, they come with no loyalty to our film industry. They come to take. Maybe if they have children, and their children want to be a part of the industry, they’ll think of giving back. Whether it’s Rohit Shetty or my brother-in-law, they take care of the stunt guys… Families of the industry are about making movies that will give back to the industry, that will nourish the industry. I believe that, and I want more people to think like that.”
The nepotism debate further intensified after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in 2020. It was rumoured that he had been outcast by jealous industry insiders, who were threatened by his emergence despite being an outsider. In the aftermath of Sushant’s death, Kangana doubled down on her stance against industry insiders, while Taapsee Pannu launched her own production banner: ‘Outsider Films Productions’. “I have seen life as it is, not through my high-rise balcony or plush car. So I am very proud to say I am an outsider and I use my experiences,” she said in a 2019 interview with Mint.
In his open letter following the ‘nepotism rocks’ controversy, Saif compared star kids to race horses bred for a purpose. “I think it’s extremely relevant in a conversation on nepotism, which means family favouritism, to talk about genetics and eugenics. Eugenics means well born and in a movie context, the genes (the DNA we’re born with, not the blue trousers we wear) of, let’s say Dharmendra’s son or Amitabh Bachchan’s son or for that matter, Sharmila Tagore’s son come into play,” he wrote.
Tanishaa Mukerji is the sister of Kajol.