By Karan Johar's admission, the word nepotism "haunts" him to the core but it appears it's very much here to stay, courtesy Instagram. On Monday, the 46-year-old filmmaker Instagrammed a photo of Shweta Bachchan Nanda and her daughter Navya Naveli Nanda to announce Shweta's new label (in collaboration with designer Monisha Jaising) but Karan's Instafam was not amused. Instead, they tagged the post as "an extreme case of nepotism" as Karan appeared to promote another star kid - Amitabh Bachchan's granddaughter Navya Naveli. "I'm sure you will launch this girl in your next project... but you can't see talent in other struggling actors... your best launching machine - nepotism," read a comment. Comments like "N for? Nepotism" followed.
"Nepotism at its extreme case! Please post some talented people's pictures. You need to stop this instantly," demanded another user while another comment read: "Nepotism zindabad... he is the Santa Claus of rich people." A section of Karan's Instafam also wanted him to introduce the "struggling" faces of Bollywood instead of star kids: "Make the rich richer great. Soon you'll be launching her too cause you're friends with her mom and shit. Nepotism at its best. There are so many other talented and beautiful people in India who aren't rich and struggling. You can launch them? But no. I hope you'll realise that and make a change for the better."
Karan Johar's ongoing battle with the debate over nepotism started when the very outspoken Kangana Ranaut branded him as the "the flag bearer of nepotism" on an episode of Koffee With Karan. Over the weekend, Karan was trolled for his continued inclusion of celebrity kids on Twitter after the cast of his next production venture Takht was announced - Takht stars Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Janhvi Kapoor among others. However, Karan had his own ways of shutting up trolls and responded with tweets such as these:
Ma'm...your clever coinage is original and has a dash of humour but nothing can match your beautiful DP image! Hand on chin and looking at an undisclosed location.... https://t.co/I5rd66894A
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) August 12, 2018
You must stop immediately or the world will come to a drastic end! https://t.co/wn62oCcrhA
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) August 12, 2018
Karan just launched Sridevi's elder daughter Janhvi Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor's brother Ishaan Khatter with July release Dhadak, ahead of which, this is what he told news agency IANS: "I know that word (nepotism) was doing around for last two years and I am again perhaps encouraging the same concept... but I will not utter the word. But I want to say, they are not here because of that word, but because of their hard work."
After Kangana set the nepotism debate rolling, Karan Johar directed several of his sarcasm-laden jibes towards the subject. Last year, Karan referenced to 'nepotism', calling himself and actors Akshaye Khanna and Sonakshi Sinha "brand ambassadors" of nepotism. At the IIFA awards last year, Karan, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan chanted 'nepotism rocks' on stage - something which the trio was widely criticised for.
Karan Johar, who is known to have introduced several star kids in Bollywood, is the son of later filmmaker Yash Johar. Next up, Karan Johar the producer has Student Of The Year 2 line-up for release, which will launch Chunky Panday's daughter Ananya in Bollywood.
