Streaming security for star kids

WHEN the son or daughter of a famous film star was launched, in Bollywood decades gone by, it was a major event with a huge amount of money being spent on a big cinema release.

This usually gave those newcomers a launch pad towards stardom, with films like Bobby (Rishi Kapoor), Betaab (Sunny Deol) and Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (Hrithik Roshan) being prime examples.

At other times, even if the movies failed, that platform was big enough for the aspiring hopefuls to immediately carve out a place in Hindi cinema, with Rocky (Sanjay Dutt), Refugee (Kareena Kapoor Khan and Abhishek Bachchan), and Saawariya (Ranbir Kapooor) being good illustrations.

But the landscape has considerably changed in the past decade largely due to this generation being a lot less talented and not having that screen presence of those who have proceeded them.

Sunny Deol has demonstrated quite comprehensively that if you give a big cinema release to talentless children today, it sets them up for a career-killing fall.

Suhana Khan

Both his sons Karan Deol and Rajveer Deol had such spectacularly low box office figure for their respective debuts that it destroyed their careers before having a chance to begin.

That is why the smarter strategy has now become to take these less talented star children onto streaming sites.

No one ever releasing official viewing figures from online platforms means the lead stars have a level of protection from negative media associated with a lack of interest. This was illustrated by decidedly average musical The Archies having a straight to Netflix premiere, despite it being directed by acclaimed filmmaker Zoya Akhtar and being based on a beloved cartoon. Despite the movie getting largely negative reviews, being on a streaming site meant Suhana Khan (Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter), Khushi Kapoor (Sridevi’s daughter) and Agastya Nanda (Amitabh Bachchan's grandson) received protection from the negativity of it being a flop film. This also gave an opportunity for publicists to promote it as a bigger success than it actually was.

That perhaps explains why Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan was recently launched in a movie that had a straight to Netflix premiere. This despite his debut Maharaj being produced by Bollywood’s biggest studio Yash Raj Films.

The historical based on a real life story of a young lawyer fighting a famous 1862 court case received mostly average reviews and would unlikely have drawn in cinema audiences. It also showed that Junaid doesn’t seem to have inherited his dad’s talent. But being on a streaming site means, he has eased himself into a Bollywood career without any box office woes hanging over him. Not having that huge press attention has also enabled him to enter Hindi cinema largely unnoticed.

This doesn’t take away from the fact that Junaid, like other star children from this era doesn’t really have what it takes to make a blockbuster impact in Hindi cinema at a time when the industry has a desperate lack of young stars to light up the big screen.

Steaming sites being a safety net gives those less talented individuals more opportunities than they deserve, which prevents more worthy newcomers getting an opportunity.

With a decade of mostly abject failure, flop star Arjun Kapoor getting repeated chances is a perfect example of this. That is why streaming sites are beneficial to nepotism kids, but deeply damaging to a Bollywood industry in decline.