The good and the bad

The good thing about the coming Friday is that it will usher in two young heroes. While audiences have something more to choose from, it is producers and directors who stand to gain the most. Until a year ago, Bollywood was starved of fresh faces. If you had to cast a young male as hero, there was hardly anyone you could approach except Shahid Kapoor. Then Ranbir Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh made their appearances. A fortnight ago Rajeev Khandelwal proved his mettle. And now there is Imran Khan and Harman Baweja. But as Shekar Kapur remarked about Ranbir's Saawariya debut, Imran and Harman are already stars-- they have been signed up for multi films even before they have made their debut.

The bad thing about this Friday is that it once again underlines how nepotism rules in Bollywood. Save for Rajeev Khandelwal's debut, the message for struggling actors trying to get an entry into Bollywood remains the same: If you don't have a relative or a Godfather to back you, there's very little hope for a newcomer to make a debut as a hero in an A grade production.