‘No one questions Ranbir Kapoor’: Imran Khan says nepotism outrage begins only when star kids give poor performances

Actor Imran Khan is known for his candour and for not shying away from speaking his mind. Recently, after addressing the competition between him and Ranbir Kapoor during the early 2000s when the two actors had just launched in the film industry, the actor spoke about the debate around nepotism and how it stems from substandard performances by actors coming from film families. Imran had made his Bollywood debut with Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, which was bankrolled by his uncle and Bollywood’s biggest star, Aamir Khan.

Speaking about his debut in 2008 and whether he had received flak for coming from a film family and debuting under his uncle’s production house, he said, “If I made my debut today, I think it would’ve been the same, really. But I certainly heard those things even then. It has been a part of the discourse when I joined the business. In the Indian film industry – I don’t want to single out only the Hindi film industry – there has been a long-standing pattern of it being a family business and there being a lot of incest within (laughs). That has historically been a feature of the industry. So, that conversation has always been around.”

However, Imran admitted that if the quality of the work is good, nobody questions an artiste’s background. “We really only care about it to the extent that the quality of the film suffers or improves. Some people from film families are wonderful artists — Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, I don’t think anyone has issue with that,” he said.

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He further explained how people bring up nepotism only when star kids deliver bad performances and gave the example of Ranbir Kapoor’s stardom and why nobody questions it because of his mastery over the craft. “Ranbir’s from film royalty. His family founded the film industry. But he’s a fantastic actor and nobody has any complaints about that. I really think that the issue comes in when people don’t like the quality of their work. If they don’t think that you’re a good actor or a filmmaker, then they’ll criticise you very rightly,” he said.

After a long sabbatical from films, Imran returned to the big screen as he made a cameo in Vir Das’ Happy Patel, which was also bankrolled by Aamir Khan.