Star kid launches in Bollywood: A 300-cr fund, A-list filmmakers to 'guide' a new generation of actors

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the phenomenon of ‘star kid launches’ in Bollywood. Also read part one — ‘ Jhanvi Kapoor, Ahan Shetty in Sairat remake could shake up 'star kid' launches' A recent newspaper report suggested that the Hindi film industry has supposedly set aside almost Rs 300 crore as a kind of ’launch fund’ for the next generation of homegrown A-listers. The article, which appeared in Mumbai Mirror, names seven star kids — Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s daughter Jahnvi, Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s daughter Sara, Sunny and Pooja Deol’s son Karan, Suneil and Mana Shetty’s son Ahan, Rima and Manoj Jain’s son Aadar (he’s cousin to Ranbir, Karisma and Kareena Kapoor), Deanne and Chikki Panday’s son Ahaan, and Neelima Azeem and Rajesh Khattar’s son Ishaan (Shahid Kapoor’s half-brother) — who would be gearing up for a grand launch over the next year and the half. If the figure is true then you can gauge the level of importance attached to the creation of the next league of stars. Even if these kids were to be launched across seven individual productions the cost of a single film would be approximately Rs 42 crore, which by any stretch of the imagination is way over the top. But is it really? Once upon a time, aspiring actors had to go through the rigmarole of knocking on doors, dropping portfolios, making a show reel, waiting endlessly for that one call that could change their lives. Govinda used to take the train from Virar to Bandra to meet producers every single day. Sometimes, the packed train would ruin his shirt and he had to get it washed and ironed at a roadside dhobi’s before he could make his rounds. On top of that, he used to take dance and acting classes, making videos of himself and drop it at all the offices he visited. The struggles of Mithun Chakraborty, Sridevi, Jackie Shroff or even Kangana Ranaut are the stuff of cinema folklore. Some, like Waheeda Rehman, Kamal Haasan, and Neetu Singh, started off as child artistes and practically ran their households at an age when most of the current crop of aspirants finds updating their social messenger status as the biggest thing they would do in the day. [caption id=“attachment_3145850” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Jhanvi Kapoor (far right), seen here with parents Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, and younger sister khushi, is among the ‘star kids’ who will reportedly have a big launch in Bollywood[/caption] While it would be unfair to judge star kids for being born in an environment where either they do not have to go through the same trials as their parents or producers line up to sign them the moment they come of age, it is interesting that some of the parents, who were star children in their own right also came up the ‘regular’ way. For instance, in spite of being one of the biggest names in the business, screenwriter Salim Khan simply refused to entertain his son Salman Khan’s dreams of being an actor. The legendary writer made it amply clear to his son that he needed to carve his own destiny and that neither was he going to ‘launch’ him nor was he going to recommend him to his friends that included the who’s who of Hindi films. Filmmaker Johny Bakshi (Khudaai) recalls how he would go to meet Salim Khan for some project that he was developing and often find Salman asking him for some leads. In fact, Bakshi also remembers how Salim Khan would ensure that Salman doesn’t harbour any false hopes of the trade being a bed of roses by joking that when he couldn’t become a hero, his son barely stood a chance. Or take a Saif Ali Khan. The offspring of cricket legend ‘Tiger’ Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and screen diva Sharmila Tagore, Saif’s pedigree remains unmatched to date but if you thought that was good enough to get him offers then you couldn’t be more mistaken. Slated to be launched along with yet another star kid, Kajol, by Rahul Rawail, one of the most sought after directors of the 1980s who helmed the debuts of Kumar Gaurav (Love Story) and Sunny Deol (Betaab), Saif was thrown out of the project for his lack of interest. Khan was then supposed to debut in Yash Chopra’s multi-starrer Parampara but eventually Aashiq Awara became his first release. Unlike in the past, a star kid launch is not just limited to a film debut now. Earlier when Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor or Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor started off, everything centered on the first impression, which meant just the first film. Later they were pretty much on their own to handle the success or failure and only in some cases such as a Kumar Gaurav, the son of Rajendra Kumar or Kunal Goswami, the son of Manoj Kumar, were they ‘re-launched’ every couple of years. But today, the producers who would be launching these star kids also assign talent management agencies to help train them in not just acting but also things such as how to deal with the media and duck the paparazzi. In a previous piece on the rumored launch of Jhanavi Kapoor this writer had mentioned that star children launches are largely a show reel or a kind of a necessary evil that cannot be done without. While that view is still maintained, it also is intriguing to see how these projects have come to become an easy way out for the filmmakers too. While one would find it easy to admonish a star child for not going out there to seek filmmakers that would look beyond presenting the star sons and daughters in a similar as their mommas and papas, it is also laziness on the part of the a-list filmmakers who seem to be more keen on ‘projects’ rather than cinema. Why should a Sajid Nadiadwala not lap up a Tiger Shroff or an Ahan Shetty in a no-brainer project and make as much money as he would on a project that would entail doing something different? Wouldn’t it be better for Hindi cinema if Varun Dhawan experiments with more of Badlapur (2015) than do Judwaa redux or what seem to be Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge reprises – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya (2014) and Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya? It would be far more fascinating to see some of these kids collaborating with, say an Ashim Ahluwalia (Miss Lovely) as it would be to see a Karan Johar work with a Sushant Singh Rajput, one of the few ‘outsiders’ in the recent past to make it big, rather than the watch yet another Student of the Year or Heropanti… but then it is what it is.