New Delhi: After the tragic death of Bollywood’s acclaimed actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the internet was drowned in posts with word “nepotism”. It has put light on the core ideas of Bollywood favoring insiders and star kids rather than talented people who have no connections with the film industry.
According to a study conducted on the day Sushant died by suicide and the following day, which was June 15th and 16th, it has been found that internet searches on keywords “nepotism in Bollywood” recorded an all-time high number.
The words were looked up about 2000 percent more than the usual times.
This study, conducted by SEMrush, was made to track how often people searched for the word “nepotism” from May 2019 to June 2020. Itshowed that during this period, it was searched for an average of 62,458 times each month.
It isn’t important for people who looked up the word “nepotism” to need results related to the Bollywood. The word is quite widely used. Moreover, it is common for the big names to favour their preferred people in every industry. However, those who do searches using the keywords “nepotism in Bollywood” are trying to link nepotism to the film industry.
The study shows these searches spiked dramatically with Sushant’s sudden death. After this increase, there was a dramatic fall in the number of times the keyword “nepotism in Bollywood” was searched. On the June 15, 16, the number of times this keyword was searched fell to only 153 per cent higher than average.
The study also recorded posts and hashtags on Twitter to bring to light the result and impact Sushant’s death had on social media. Itshowed a massive increase in the number of times hashtags like #NepotismBollywood, #BollywoodBlockedSushant, #JusticeForSushantRajput, and #KaranJoharIsBULLY were used in tweets.
At the endthe June 17, the total number of tweets on #NepotismBollywood, #BollywoodBlockedSushant, #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput, and KaranJoharIsBULLY stood at 3,961, 10,520, 36,292, and 10,230 respectively.
However, on June 14, tweets posted with each hashtag fell to just 1, 0, 32, and 0, respectively. This study proved that there is a strong belief in people that the film industry favors it’s insiders and practices nepotism.
Speaking about the results of the study Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications, SEMrush said: “Our study should serve as a caution to Bollywood. Many who love its movies secretly aspire to stardom, when these aspiring stars feel they have no chance of realising their hidden ambitions, their enthusiasm for Bollywood’s fare may wane. For Bollywood to be seen in the best possible light, it must not allow for a repeat of what happened to Sushant. It should give outsiders who are talented the same chance as that given to insiders. When the masses see that outsiders with no links to the movie industry are making it big, they will view Bollywood’s productions in a more favourable light. As a result, the receipts earned by the box office will increase”.
Bollywood and it’s nepotism has been the topic of discussion since a long time. Producer Karan Johar’s infamous talk show has often seen only those stars getting invited who are either connected to the industry or are favoured by the producer himself.
