The Dark Side of Nepotism

The word nepotism is the practice among the powerful, influential, and wealthy individuals in favoring relatives and friends, especially by giving them jobs or contracts or other ways to provide them with monetary favors. It should not be a surprise when someone gives their nephew a job as a Sales Clerk at their clothing showroom. But it should be of concern when persons in positions of higher authority in public and private jobs place their favorite persons who are far less competent in an area that requires a combination of higher learning, training, and skill. Nepotism can also mean providing special privileges to friends, relatives, colleagues, or acquaintances for employment, career, or other financial decisions. While nepotism exists in every culture and society, it is a highly sensitive issue. In this article, I focus on two industries, US higher education, and Bollywood in India and their indistinguishable struggles with nepotism.

The US higher education ranked #1 in the world several decades ago, but as of 2019, the US ranks at an unimpressive #36th. While the US higher education is an excellent education system and is unique in some ways, its ranking has been steadily slipping down because of several challenges that colleges and universities face. Some of those challenges haven’t fully unearthed. I have spent the last twenty years of my professional career in the US higher education, and I have seen my fair share of a significant challenge facing the educational organizations of all sizes – Nepotism at different levels of an organization.

I have witnessed first-hand how nepotism can take root at one level of the organization (usually at the top tier of the administration) and spread like wildfire throughout the organization. It almost feels like a musical chair game; once the music starts (typically when a new leader joins an organization), everyone must quickly take sides and join the circus of nepotism and cronyism, or be singled out. Given how the educational organizations function, no one can hide their true allegiance or alliance. Nepotism has a momentum and a life of its own. The favors are often in the forms of a promotion, reorganization, or adding more departments/programs under the favored person’s supervision—bottom line: More money in their pockets.

The Real Bollywood

Let’s take a look at Bollywood, the entertainment hub for India’s 1.3 billion population. Not only is the name Bollywood an imitation of Hollywood, but it’s makeup is similar to what goes on in Hollywood. Most newcomer actors in Bollywood are forced into signing up for low-cost, mediocre roles until they can prove their likability by the audience. Women are even susceptible to sexual harassment, non-consensual sex, and rape by the industry toughies. Think about Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse in the US entertainment industry that has only come to light in recent months.

Bollywood has a notorious reputation for giving a red carpet welcome and treatment to the kids of Bollywood stars, known as star kids. Regardless of the majority of star kids’ ineptitude and awkwardness at acting, they get the leading roles in movies while making it harder for ‘outsider,’ actors who have no links to Bollywood celebrities to get the right parts in films. In many instances, the Bollywood establishment makes it difficult for lesser-known but highly talented artists to reach the peak of their performance and career. Rumor has it that the industry establishment has an ‘elite club of Bollywood’ that willfully scrutinizes and antagonizes any ‘outsider’ and works closely to ensure anyone on their blacklist doesn’t last too long in that profession.

Once nepotism manifests itself in an organization or an industry, it can quickly build up the momentum for cronyism, mediocrity, low morale, and poor values that are hard to break away. While nepotism is prevalent in every industry, most people are fearful of speaking about it, perhaps for fear of retaliation, and fear of being singled out, or simply because they have ties of kinship with those who practice nepotism. Avoiding such a conflict may seem to be a safe bet, even at lower motivation, work satisfaction, and work commitment.

Sushant Singh Rajput

Sushant Singh Rajput was an immensely talented, intelligent, good-looking, well-liked, and a promising A-list star who recently committed suicide. The alleged bullying and oppression by the infamous ‘elite club of Bollywood’ unquestionably wanted Sushant Singh Rajput out of the film industry. The social media sites in India are abuzz with a litany of complaints, testaments, and petitions to investigate what drove this fine young actor to kill himself and who all were behind this desperate attempt to limit his potential. One clue that recently came to light was a distinctly offensive and disdainful twitter remark. It was an attempt to publicly bash Sushant Singh Rajput by banning him from getting any future roles in movie productions in Bollywood. The unashamed culprits behind this ill-willed tweet were none other than some of the most famous Bollywood movie personalities and production companies. These include Salman Khan Films, Sajid Nadiawala, T Series, Yash Raj Films, Balaji Motion Pictures, and many others. Sushant Singh Rajput’s decision to commit suicide and not leave a suicide note is not an act of cowardice but silent indignation toward Bollywood elites who made it impossible for him to carve his way out of an outcasted position they held out for him. The ordinary people understand Sushant’s silent resentment, but in Bollywood it is a deafening silence.

Nepotism in Bollywood

So how does the practice of nepotism work in Bollywood? The Bollywood star kids are the sons and daughters of famous Bollywood personalities. Star kids like Alia Bhatt, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Karan Johar, Sara Ali Khan, Jhanvi Kapoor, and many more have been a shoo-in for leading roles in movies from the getgo of their careers. But what has been most forthcoming about their performances is a vain sense of privilege, power, elitism, and arrogance that outdoes their acting debuts. Most star kids emanate an ostentatious loftiness of acting being ‘in their genes.’ Still, nothing can be farther from the truth because most of them have failed miserably to impress the audience, despite their star-studded newcomer allure because of their visibly inept and mediocre skills in acting. For now, many of these star kids continue to ride the ebb tide of their parents’ popularity, hoping that something about them will stick as unique or palatable in the hearts of the audience.

The media is primarily to blame for overlooking the lackluster talent that exists in most star kids but making them look like larger-than-life individuals who are projected as having the best shot for success. The media is irrefutable and unabashed in writing about what cool new things the star kids have acquired, what party they attended, what designer clothes they are wearing, where they shop, and so on. For most of these star kids, the media hounds for their next story long before they even decide to join the film industry.

A Few Brave Hearts Including Kangana Ranuat

However, few brave reporters have time and again asked various Bollywood stars in different venues about the problem of nepotism. Almost all the celebrities interviewed for this question have carefully avoided answering the real question while crafting a cheeky, smirky, and often belittling remarks to the reporters for asking such an absurd question, or making light of the whole issue. In some cases, they have shown themselves to be oblivious to any nepotism triggers or ruled out that nepotism exists. Bollywood industry employs roughly 20,000 actors each year. Only one actor has steadfastly raised the issue of nepotism in this industry thus far – Kangana Ranuat. Kangana Ranuat is herself an ‘outsider,’ She is brave to bring the issue of nepotism to the forefront of her acting career in Bollywood. She was also the first to release a public statement about nepotism and its connection to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

The Infamous ‘Elite Club of Bollywood’

While we don’t yet fully know what drove Sushant to the point of his ultimate sacrifice, there is no doubt that his death has stirred up a national conversation about nepotism and how difficult it is for ‘outsider’ actors to fit in. A few more Bollywood stars have come forward to address the long-standing and systemic issue of nepotism in Bollywood. Sushant’s death has also reignited the conversation about the controversial ‘elite club of Bollywood’ inner workings, and now the Mumbai police are investigating all leads and allegations in this case.

In the hallowed halls of US higher education and Bollywood, nepotism and cronyism are alive and thriving. While not everyone would take the extreme step to commits suicide because of the prevalence of nepotism, it can dramatically change the career trajectory, aspiration, and motivation of those negatively affected by nepotism. Nepotism may vary in range and scale, but it is as rampant as inequity and inequality in US higher education and being a ‘star kid’ versus an ‘outsider’ in Bollywood. The veil of nepotism is thin, but its reach is more profound than what meets the eye, and what the heart can feel. It is like a virus that starts slowly, but once it finds a host, the spread is far and deep. As an educator, I want to understand nepotism, not just in terms of what it stands for but also where it can eventually lead an individual, group, class, society, and nation. Next time you find someone choosing to defend, deny, or minimize that nepotism exists, help them first consider the following observations:

It’s about dominance, discrimination, and oppression – The height of nepotism can be seen in the most soul-crushing example of the Nazi era Germany when millions of Jews were killed in the concentration camps. Nepotism allowed Hitler to have tens of thousands of officers and soldiers to conform to his way of thinking and join him in the vicious act of killing innocent people. While this is an extreme example, it highlights how far out nepotism can go if it goes unchecked. At the most basic level, nepotism is about dominating others based on someone’s position, power, status, or class and ensures that others don’t reach a higher level of accomplishment in life. It also means using subtle or overt forms of discrimination to put others down because someone doesn’t fit your version of being worthy or equal. Oppression is a prolonged cruel, and unjust treatment of others to control and succumb them to mental pressure, pain, and distress. In each episode of Koffey with Karan, an Indian talk show produced, directed, and hosted by Karan Johar, he aimed to embarrass and humiliate Sushant Singh Rajput by asking his guests (typically the A-list actors and star kids) to rate Sushant.

Competency and likability – In every industry, talent and competence should have the highest value, but it doesn’t always happen. While it may be harder to recognize someone’s expertise in education because the person may not be in a position or title for others to witness their core abilities and aptitude, in film acting, you either have the talent to act or don’t. It’s that simple. Irrespective of a person’s experience and background, the natural talent in acting is unmistakable and noticeable. But to deliberately squash someone gifted and talented in acting because of nepotism is a tough bullet for anyone to bite. Sushant Singh Rajput must have felt extreme hopelessness and desperation to recognize that his competency, talent, likability, intelligence, including many other virtues, weren’t sufficient for the Bollywood elites to make space for him in an industry that launches about 2,000 films each year.

Perceptions of unfairness – Perhaps the biggest downside of the practice of nepotism is the perception of unfairness. When the rules are dictated by ‘who knows who’ and not ‘who knows what’ because it comes from a place of privilege and entitlement, there is an underlying disillusionment and hopelessness of ‘how does it matter’ to have real talent or ability to do an excellent job. Pick any latest Hindi movie at random and watch a slurry of mediocre acting that runs through its script. The low morale also breeds an unhealthy competition every time Bollywood elites pick a star kid with little to no talent in acting for a leading role in a movie, thereby promoting nepotism. What matters is who will make the most profit and who all should benefit from that endeavor.

Complacency and inefficiency – When almost everyone is complacent about an egregious problem such as nepotism, it breeds inefficiency and complacency with how things are and not how they should be. There is little to nothing to learn, grow, and advance because, just like in the musical chairs game, everyone has already taken sides, and each one must cease to change the status quo. This way of functioning in any organization or industry is nothing less than sabotaging its future for a select few at the cost of progressive evolution and transformation. Casting the net too shallow scoops the weakest fish into the net.

The moral dilemma – What the practice of nepotism essentially brings into question and is at the root of our collective existence is the value each one of us brings to the table. To allow a mediocre and unfit person to be in a lead role, whether in an organization or a movie, is an insult to injury to those who are far more competent and deserving. An ‘outsider’ simply does not have the clout a ‘star kid’ or a favored person holds. The moral dilemma is for those in positions of authority. They have to give up on their ideals and values that bring out the best in ourselves and others and settle for people who lack both the competency and aptitude to contribute meaningfully to an organization or industry. I would rather watch five quality movies with great acting per year rather than to subject myself to a plethora of substandard and ridiculous movies with an overtone of mediocre acting.

Regardless of the industry, people with great talent and competency have a considerable share in building the wealth, prosperity, and well-being of a nation. It is the ethical responsibility of leaders in every field to recognize and promote real talent and ensure that the abundance and dedication of highly talented individuals are positively channeled and broadly realized. It would not be far-fetched for the policymakers to consider an anti-nepotism law that brings back increased transparency and accountability into our work world. As we step into the second half of 2020, let’s make a resolution to stand up to the evils of nepotism not just for ourselves but also for others and to always choose love, compassion, and kindness over anything negative.