Exclusive: 1920 Evil Returns Actress Tia Bajpai On Nepotism: ‘Was Invited To Filmfare Awards But There Was No Seat For Me’
Tia Bajpai Opens Up On Nepotism
Updated : August 27, 2020 04:06 PM IST
In the wake of the nepotism debate once again, post the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput many actors, actresses and film technicians from Bollywood have come out to relate their ordeal in the industry. Right from Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman to Shekhar Kapur to Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, people have narrated how Bollywood has been unfair to them when it came to acknowledging their craft.
And now in an exclusive conversation with us, Haunted actress Tia Bajpai revealed, she too has faced injustice at work in B’Town. She recollected how she was denied seats in Filmfare awards. Quipped she, “Of course, I faced a lot of rejections, after doing two superhit films, Haunted and 1920 Returns, now we have a very different definition of superhit films, if a film makes three times the money than the budget it was made in... If Haunted was made in 8 crores and it went on to make Rs 40 crores, it is a superhit film. It doesn’t have to be a 100-crore film. I remember, I was invited to Filmfare Awards but there was not a seat for me, they had not allotted a seat for me.”
She further went on to reveal that after critics praised her performance in films, refused to acknowledge her when she met them, “I remember doing 1920 and the critics who reviewed my film saying, ‘she is amazing’, ‘she is a revelation’, ‘she is one of the best actresses of her time’, ‘she is ahead of her time in terms of her performance’, they refused to recognise me when I went and said hello to them. I was prepared for it. Nepotism exists and whoever denies is not in their right mind,” fumed Tia.
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The 1920 Returns actress feels it is nothing wrong if a father wants to bequeath his child with everything in the world but it is not right either to snatch away what rightfully belongs to someone else, “A father works hard for his children, there’s nothing wrong with that, but you should not take away somebody else’s child's rights, you give your child what you want to give them, but when you take away someone else’s right to give it to your child, it is wrong. I think that is where things go a little dark here.”
The Haunted actress revealed she did bear the brunt of nepotism in Bollywood and that she faced discrimination because she starred in Vikram Bhatt films and also because she began her career in the TV industry. She tells us, “I have faced it, I have had films which were taken away from me, I have gone for script meetings but then I have not been called back, I have been told we don’t work with Vikram Bhatt actors and I also have been told we don’t' work with actors who have a TV background. But I didn’t take it all negatively, because somehow, I know I am very talented, I wouldn’t be here otherwise, I would still be working. So, it is not about talent, it is about the backing that you go with, it's about how many people are supporting you and the internal politics that goes with it.”