We have talked a lot about #nepotism in Bollywood. People’s opinions differ and ultimately it is the audience’s choice that matters, irrespective of whether you are from a film family or otherwise. It suddenly struck me today that nepotism, or some form of it, is also very prevalent in most industries, for example, family-led businesses like the Ambanis or the Birlas.
Why did I start thinking about this? I was watching a video of a dance rehearsal of a popular dance troupe in Kolkata. This dance troupe/academy was established by a pioneer of creative dance and his wife. The tradition continued in the second generation with two separate troupes formed by his daughter and son. Now, in the third generation, the son’s troupe is helmed mainly by his daughter, or the original founder’s granddaughter. She is not too bad a dancer, but in my humble opinion, she is not the stuff, lead or principal dancers are made of, beautiful though she is.
Dance is a visual form and often, physical attributes determine where you stand on a stage or what part you get in a dance drama. And when great gurus and dancers establish dance academies and performance wings, sometimes skill becomes the last criterion by which you are chosen. That is sad and I have watched it happen time and again, not only to myself
but to other far better dancers than me. The daughter-in-law of one of the best Bharata Natyam gurus of our times was promoted and given solo slots in every show until she disagreed with her mother-in-law and broke away from the parent institution to establish her own dance school.
Most dance teachers have their own performance troupes, and they take up main roles themselves 90% of the time. When they have families, they prefer a daughter or a son, or a relative by marriage to take up key characters. If they have no one who is a performer, that is a blessing in disguise for other talented dancers in the troupe.
And the other side to this is students who pressurize their teachers into giving them plum roles or plum performances simply because they have aggressive or pushy parents and buy their way onto the stage. A very popular stage and TV dancer had an agreement with her guru that she would be awarded the first position in any competition she deigned to take part in. I personally watched her mother berate her guru all night long simply because the guru had cut short her performance by one item to prevent the audience from leaving and given that slot to another student of hers.
However, not all is lost. I am proud to say that some of my erstwhile contemporaries have tried to change this #negativetrend and they promote their students and fellow dancers without bias when they produce shows. I remember watching a beautiful dance production from before the pandemic, wherein though the principal dancer did have a lengthy role, she had invited dancers of other disciplines to perform in her production at par, and it only elevated her production to the next level.
I would like to sign off by saying that looks are not everything and which family you are from should be the last selection criteria for any performing art. Let’s try to avoid conscious and #unconsciousbias so that India with its huge pool of untapped talent can break barriers and show the world what we are made of!