Gulshan Devaiah: So much tamasha about nepotism, people are segregated on sets based on job profile

Nepotism, according to Gulshan Devaiah, is not the only thing about Bollywood that needs to change. The actor feels that segregation of people based on their job profile with separate dining areas also needs to be done away with.

“It’s a very common occurrence. It happens across the entire spectrum, be it film sets, ad shoots or TV sets. I’ve been seeing this since the time I’ve been working here. It doesn’t happen on every set, but a lot of sets do segregate,” Devaiah shares.

It’s been more than 10 years since he’s a part of the industry, and over these years, he has seen the divide among people working on a set diluting a bit. But that’s not enough.

Looking back at his initial years, the 43-year-old recalls, “In 2008, when I was an ‘extra’, at that time, people used to say, ‘Aapke khaana udhar laga hua hai aur unka wahan’. I never paid much attention to it at that point of time, but it’s something that really bothers me. There’s a certain class and hierarchy which is there.”

While the Ghost Stories (2020) and Unpaused actor doesn’t know what he can do to solve it, he’s using his voice to initiate a conversation, hoping it would spin the wheel of change. That’s the reason he recently took to Twitter to express, “What bothers me more than Nepotism in Bollywood S1 E02: Sets that segregate people based on their job profile with separate dining areas”.

Talking about it, the actor rues, “So much tamasha is made about nepotism. In fact, nepotism pichle saal se kaafi popular hai yahan pe, particularly hamari industry mein sab log apni shortcomings doosre pe dalte hain. Here, I’m not trying to deny nepotism. But there are so many other things as well, which are bothersome. There are so many areas where we can as an industry do better. That’s why I thought I’ll start writing my thoughts.”

When asked if anything has changed, Devaiah notes that there are many sets who don’t practice such biases but at the same time, he has experienced it rampantly on other sets.

“We are all working together, can’t we have more dignity. There are some artistes who like to stay isolated, but then they can go into their dressing room or vanity. This kind of segregation is wrong,” he concludes.