Bollywood’s obsession with star kids isn’t new. Nepotism is deeply rooted in the industry and is in the spotlight once again with filmmaker R. Balki’s insensitive statement. When asked about nepotism in an interview and the advantages star kids enjoy, the Padman director merely said that there were no better actors than Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor in the industry to begin with.
“Find me a better actor than Alia or Ranbir, and we’ll argue. It’s unfair on these few people who’re probably some of the finest actors.”
And while we do think that these two are fine actors, there are others who shouldn’t be disregarded just because of their surname. It is undoubtedly difficult for those who don’t have parents or family from the industry to make a mark, and it only gets worse if filmmakers begin to justify their actions this way. So here are 51 actors in the industry who are equally good, if not better than these two.
1. Neena Gupta
2. Jaideep Ahlawat
3. Pankaj Tripathi
4. Manoj Bajpai
5. Jitendra Kumar
6. RajKummar Rao
7. Vineet Kumar Singh
8. Sohum Shah
9. Randeep Hooda
10. Vinay Pathak
11. Vidya Balan
12. Kangana Ranaut
13. Radhika Apte
14. Vijay Raaz
15. Richa Chadha
16. Kay Kay Menon
17. Ayushmann Khurrana
18. Sanjay Mishra
19. Siddhant Chaturvedi
20. Taapsee Pannu
21. Aparshakti Khurana
22. Rahul Bose
23. Avinash Tiwary
24. Anushka Sharma
25. Sobhita Dhulipala
26. Kalki Koechlin
27. Jim Sarbh
28. Vikrant Massey
29. Sushmita Sen
30. Seema Pahwa
31. Ratna Pathak Shah
32. Priyanka Chopra
33. Tripti Dimri
34. Gajraj Rao
35. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub
36. Swara Bhasker
37. Kumud Mishra
38. Abhishek Banerjee
39. Naseeruddin Shah
40. Supriya Pathak
41. Deepak Dobriyal
42. Pankaj Kapur
43. Rasika Dugal
44. Kubbra Sait
45. Nawazuddin Siddiqui
46. Shashank Arora
47. Gulshan Devaiah
48. Adil Hussain
49. Manav Kaul
50. Jimmy Sheirgill
51. Neeraj Kabi
Which actor do you think deserves more credit?