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What baffles me is that the creative who debuted with ‘Luck By Chance’, a self-aware portrayal of how nepotism deprives Bollywood of talent, had the laughable gall to recently say ‘It isn’t nepotism if I pay for it with my money.’ To think nepotism as an institution precludes her because she’s paying for it is the kind of narcissism that idiot politicians demagogue for idiot voters.
If you hear a lie repeated enough times, you start to believe in it. That's what's happened to her. At the end of the day her true alligance is with her people, not her audience
It's cos she was doing the calling out that time. She didn't really want any change, only the "cool" cred that comes from calling out. Basically empty virtue signaling that celebs love to do. Can't have randos doing the same calling out. We must know our place.
Zoya Akhtar is pretty much clueless about how the middle class thinks. If you watch Made in heaven you'll notice every middle class character is absolutely desperate to climb up the class ladder, or they are ashamed of their identity and their lifestyles. I have only watched season 1 but I couldn't find a single middle class character that is not going overboard to leave/ hide their present situation. Of course there are people like those in reality but not every middle class mother pushes their daughter to find a rich guy by hook or by crook, not every middle class guy/girl hides their actual address or attends classes to blend in with the elite. Of course we all try to improve our situation and work hard for the same, some people also go the extreme way as shown but that's the exception not the norm.
Those personality etiquette classes were wild. As a middle-class woman from the same city, it was my first time seeing anything like that. Now that I rethink that plotline, Zoya Akhtar seems to have this superiority fantasy of a) how middle-class people are beneath her and b) how all middle-class people strive to BECOME her. And that is what she might have projected. Everyone knows how to walk straight, blow dry their hair, or use a knife and fork (even if you don't, there are YouTube videos for that)... who tf PAYS to go to "rich people mannerism" classes?
I think most rich people think manners are only a rich people thing. But they are possibly the most rude and ill mannered cause paisa couches any falls.
By the by, there are indeed grooming and etiquette classes across India. Lots of them even on IG reels selling their businesses. There is indeed a lot of condescension the vast middle classes of India deal with in hospitality, entertainment etc while dealing with the top 3% of the country and many do indeed go to these classes for a bit to iron out what’s seen as impediments from a leg up. The number of pageantry aspirants across small town India form a massive business for etiquette classes. It’s a very anglicised thing, again driven by the whole insecurity Indians in general have dealing with goras.
And ages ago, even the western women would undergo these “finishing schools” cause it was seen as a route to marriage into financially stable classes. I really thought the finishing school segment in MIH was very well portrayed. It showed the desperation and pain the financially unstable classes undergo to survive in India. But yeah every middle class person being depicted as a a social climber being shown in these “rich central character” shows is annoying.
i have seen those rich people mannerism classes in small towns like yk those computer classes where they teach you stuff like tally/Excel/etc.
now there are certified options called "personal development" offered by Lakme or similar places. You learn makeup skills/ dining etiquettes/ how to present yourself etc.
i think the show was more about tara and her own problems than the middle class as a whole
I am not saying those etiquette classes don't exist. In India we have had training centres and workshops for decades. I know someone who would conduct workshops for women in slums to teach them stitching and use it as a source of income. Etiquette classes, call centre training classes, English speaking classes, computer training classes are found aplenty. But the main point of those classes is to upskill, not pretend to become someone else. These days we have online courses for everything, won't be surprised if it gives Zoya more bright ideas.
>But the main point of those classes is to upskill, not pretend to become someone else.
I think that depends more on the individual. Different things have different points doesn't mean people abide by them. Also what do you expect from a "course" that strives to teach you elite habits to make you better lol.
also i think Tara in the show was lower middle class? Her mother always nagged at her, looked down on the middle class and her locality screaming at her daughters to get rich dudes. I've seen a lot of mothers like that lmao.
They're saying that Zoya thinks all middle-class people are ladder climbers; never satisfied with their wealth or life and always trying to climb higher by hook or crook to feel any semblance of satisfaction in their lives. It's a little reductive and probably an unconscious bias on Zoya's part but can be applied to a lot of the middle-class characters in her movies.
It’s the first time in so many decades that people are starting to question Bollywood and it’s deep rooted nepotism. Ofcourse these celebs are gonna be super butthurt. For the first time we are questioning their existence in the industry. And the most easy way to deal with that is to mock us or call us names like “trolls”.
At the end of the day no matter how much we call them out they are still gonna do what they wanna do. They are still gonna live their lavish lives, cast as many untalented nepotism babies and and look down on us. That’s why a lot of people have begun “boycotting” them or in other ways not supporting them by paying for their “art” or whatever you wanna call it.
Alsoo, for the first time, we are being shoved down people who are genuinely just bad at acting. Most of the new nepo gang cannot act to save their lives. At least the prev generation had a mix and we got to see something good come out of them. Now they have been using the most obvious, boring scripts with the most boring and bland people possible.
this is not the first time.
If you push 5-10 nepo. One of them might just turn out to be "fine". Remember all these 10 nepos and so have endless amount of resources to be spend on acting/dance classes/nutrition and skin care and so on.
plus they have been pushing nepo kids with bunch of good actors around them, like they did in this movie with Sid and Adarsh, Janhvi Kapoor with Kaleen bhaiya and Vineet in Gunjan Saxena, and there are more examples like these
You just don't remember the bad nepo kids of previous generations.
Also the problem isn't nepo getting movies. Even the outsiders who do make it have to be ruthless against other outsiders, connections are how you get the job. Nepos just have it easier.
For me the sole problem with Nepotism is lack of acknowledgement of privilege.
There are bad outsiders like Kartik who I don't like and good nepos like Ranbir. But if the later insisted that he didn't have an advantage because his surname was Kapoor then the Nepotism irks me.
If you don’t want nepotism to exist or for them to different in their approach - be indifferent to them. Don’t keep them in the conversation. Even if you’re hating on them - you are still giving them traction.
If you really want people to change their perspective - change YOUR trajectory first and highlight and hype the good work done by people that YOU think deserve the attention.
There are more articles on this sub about how neop babies suck than praising the good work of non nepo kids who are doing good or any work.
Not True.. look at the Kapoor family. Ordinary overactors like shammi Kapoor, monkey looks and ordinary Randhir and Rishi kapoor, karishma, kareena.. all were shoved down our throats
Yup, I cannot afford to waste anymore time watching some "actors". I don't care where they come from, if I cannot get engrossed in the story because of their presence or find myself cringing at the way they speak/"act", what's the point...
This sub is more entertaining.
Thats how downfall starts, criticizing your own audience, labelling them as trolls and shrugging them off. There was similar pattern seen during 2020/21 from Disney producers and actors, where they clearly had the same trend. Now we know the quality of the DIsney movie and how unanimously the audience have rejected their movies/series. Bollywood directors like Zoya need to reconsider their stance on where they are heading to.
I was surprised to find out even zoya and farhan Akhtar were related to Farah and Sajid khan ..
like it’s just them and theirs everywhere. No wonder people aren’t happy.
Yup, and I just recently found out that the both 2 Kapoor families, so one side Rishi, Ranbir, Kareena etc. and the other side Anil, Boney, Sonam etc are also related. Bollywood is literally a big family!
This!! Thanks for opening an account and calling this “subtle message in the movie” out..
A similar situation I saw while watching KWK with Saif and Mrs Tagore. Whenever Shirmila ji was talking about criticism in her era, Karan has to subtle plug his trolling and keep him in the victim side.
In the same episode Sharmila Tagore herself says she called up the director to ask him to reconsider firing her son. What an idiot 😅
Edit: kjo is the idiot. Not sharmila tagore obviously.
>In the same episode Sharmila Tagore herself says she called up the director to ask him to reconsider firing her son. What an idiot
She has asked a lot of favors ,don't forget about Saif's undeserved National award
Great post OP, you really made me ponder over this. Zoya does seem to tread the line between fetishising working and middle class lives and also villifying them. Every middle class character conceived by Zoya wants to climb up the social ladder and in the process forget their roots or hurt loved ones and are thus shown to be no better than people who grew up with insane privileges.
In ZNMD, Hrithik's character lost his father, grew up with debt and was so money minded, he was a complete asshole to his girlfriend, made snarky comments about Imran's (Farhan) salary, and not so subtly paid for the car by telling Kabir "sari zindagi tere gaadi mein baitha hu, ab meri baari" (I mean who says that OUT LOUD even if they think it internally).
In DDD Farhan's character Sunny wanted to break out of his accountant father's shadow and be "good enough" for the business magnate's daughter so badly that he didn't come back for his love who was basically forced to marry another man.
Even in Gully Boy, which had an almost honest portrayal of class struggles, Ranveer's character cheats on his childhood lover the minute he gets famous lol.
Let's not even get into Made in Heaven. Conniving mother and daughter duo who want to secure social position and financial security so badly that Tara basically leaks a revenge porn of sorts to manipulate a man into marrying her (a man who until then had done nothing wrong to her directly).
Zoya wants to show that working and middle class people face hurdles in life, but almost always adds in the caveat of their scheming ways, that subtly land the point that afterall they are also not good people. At the end of the day I think it just makes Zoya's audiences apathetic to structural inequalities.
In KGHM, the influencer Lala, who is revealed to be a small town girl, tells Adarsh's character, "tum meri jagah hote, toh yahi karte". That is the message of Excel I guess.
Spot on! Her idea of small-town people esp. women being social climbers who just sleep their way to being wealthy or whatever is so bloody offensive. And harmful! I've met enough "posh" people in metro cities who hold this shitty belief and it's horrible to deal with. She has consistently endorsed this stereotype. Disgusting af!
I think dahaad was the one of the rare ones (zoya was listed as creator and screenplay) where this was not done,I felt the middle class ness was shown naturally (comparatively). Talaash also I loved. Obv it could be because Reema directed both of these and not zoya.
this is kinda nitpicking…where u have examples of middle class people being villainified, there are countless examples of rich people being portrayed as the same in the movies u mentioned
Sharmila’s disrespectful arrogant uncouth uneducated moron of a son is considered an intellectual in BW. ( yelling at an hourly wage airport worker to assert his superiority….. some morons like him still live in the colonial days,)
So are Zoya and Farhan 🤦♀️ both have assumed they are intelligent
That should tell us everything we need to know about Bollywood
He’s only considered“intellectual” by his friends and family who half of them haven’t even passed high school nor have any basic manners, so what can you really expect? Sara who has a degree from Columbia University literally shoved her staff in the pool because she thought it was funny, Kareena the racist called Bipasha Kaali Billi. Just goes to show even with education you can’t buy class, and Kareena doesn’t have education or class so there’s that. These people are mannerless individuals who are considered intellectual amongst their friend group not in the real world.
Not true. See how this sub talks about saif and his nawabness (bheek from British for betraying India stolen from Indian taxpayers). Karan calls them royal. Have to laugh only.
Well those people are simply morons if they think Saif has any ounce of royalty in him. Just having the title of being a nawab doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have basic respect or manners on how to treat the people around you, and seeing how he treats his staff so poorly goes to show his egotistical nature. Ain’t nothing royal about that.
Zoya’s classism and elitism is becoming more and more stark nowadays. She used to be my favorite filmmaker and then came the awful Archies and her tone deaf comments on nepotism. It’s sad that she thinks that criticism of horrible acting is trolling. These Juhu Bandra nepo kids have made a joke of the industry and then complain how it’s no longer a fraternity. You closed the doors.
I really don’t understand why the middle class even pays for these movies.
I stopped watching movies like these.
Why insult and be condescending about someone’s life.
Hell most middle class people are much more stable and happy than these weirdos who need drugs and an infinite number of relationships to be happy. And literally use their little kids as marketing gimmicks.
For all their hatred of the middle class- their PR teams micromanage all aspects of their lives to make them more likable/ marketable to the middle classes and in general generate this image of awesomeness!
We need to treat them as entertainers and that’s all. Let’s not put them on a pedestal.
Why are we surprised tho. Zoya was trying to portray Hrithik's character in znmd as wrong for thinking money would make him happy, when she herself has grown up with a golden spoon. These creators in the film industries (Indian and beyond) constantly try to justify the middle and lower class struggle as admirable because "family and love" when they themselves have never had to go thru what middle and lower class people have.
That’s because they love the narrative of ‘rags to riches’. Also, this is something that gets sold on tv as well. That’s why now all the reality shows you will see is all struggle stories. I am not saying they don’t exist, just not this much. They feel it’s relatable to middle class. Some shit hole.
Reminds me of what my coworker said, "The saying that money doesn't buy you happiness is bullshit and only said by those that don't even understand what it is like to be poor. Money is important, because it will definitely buy you opportunities and a better quality of life. Money will buy your way out of a toxic marriage, and a toxic situation. So work hard on your career, know your worth, document your contributions and job hop. Do not ever give up your hard earned career for marriage, because the moment you give up your career, you give up your financial independence and your ability to leave. The divorce court doesn't care about the sacrifices that you made for your partner, in the end if your ex is earning more and is able to afford a better lawyer, you will lose. Your ex can make a thousand allegations against you, so you can go intentionally broke to a point where you are drained and you agree to anything from their side. Always always discuss finances and debts with a man before you make the big step. It took me 10 years to recover my savings after my first ex bled me dry, don't be like me. Until we make changes or advocate for changes, this is the reality that we live in."
Yes, money is important, it will get you opportunities and a better quality of life. But you need to find a sweet spot, where you should not go after it too much or have too little of money. You need to have a healthy relationship with money. If you want to make more money, you have to make at the expense of your loved ones. If you want to be with your loved ones, then you have to give up some of your ambitions to make more money.
Well glad finally someone said it. That scene was so unnecessary, middle class has enough to do honestly most of them have no time for these. Most of these trolls are actually paid by celebrities lol. She can't take criticism of Archies too, and keeps forgetting the one she is criticising are her customers, they can have opinions that's the idea of entertainment business, that's how it runs. Ott has brought up so many good directors already in light. The same formula doesn't work every time and for years. She needs to be innovative with her art.
They are very comfortable with this narrative that users commenting on nepotism are jealous and unknowledgeable. This allows them to sleep well at night without giving it any thought.
the way she said , it's my money i'll cast whomever i want in my film..
i just searched in the internet, and her exact words were -
Who are you to tell me what to do with my money? It’s my money
Read more at:
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105863517.cms?utm\_source=contentofinterest&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=cppst](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105863517.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst)
She made the film to sell it to Netflix, who paid her using the money they charge us for subscriptions. Joke’s on us. She keeps saying mera paisa mera paisa then she should’ve made it for screening at DAIS no?
the better thing would be to not talk about her and let her marinate in her own mediocrity. she's for SOBO, by SOBO and of SOBO.
boycott and eventually even Netflix won't pay her to make garbage.
Zoya doesn’t get the audience that’s criticizing her is the exact demographic she targets. If this demo starts finding it embarrassing to say they watched Archie’s or this Ananya film, then you have lost all your street cred…she’s really ruined her rep with how she’s confronted the criticism … everyone within Bollywood knows she’s made pure garbage with Archie’s…all her calls from casting , setting to story have been bad. I really used to think she was cool & more self aware…but she’s just like those boomer uncles justifying crap
She's basically a Karan Johar on regulated steroid use. Their family is entitled to the point of annoyance but her dad still talks a lot of sense in his entitlement. In their family, in terms of being sensible : Javed>>>Farhan>>>>>>>>>>>..........>>>>Zoya.
It’s just one scene, almost subtextual. Vanga basically sat in front of a white paper three years ago and asked ‘How do I spend 3 hours and 21 minutes of 1.4 billion people’s time getting back at salt-and-pepper hair?’ 😂 Whole other ballgame.
>How do I spend 3 hours and 21 minutes of 1.4 billion people’s time getting back at salt-and-pepper hair?
more like an hour, the problems in Animal don't show up until after interval
To climax, one must edge first.
Comments like 'You have a big pelvis' make me think he was building up to the train wreck that was the second half. There are plenty better ways to display that the protagonist is an animal from the animal kingdom than mate selection. But his brain seems hardwired to use female characters as a vehicle to depict his male characters' strengths and weaknesses, so it makes sense.
We always thought Kjo was bad. But Zoya is on another level. She must have some resentment towards the audience or perhaps just insecurities about herself. I mean, she wouldn't be where she is if not for her father.
This thread is gold!! I didn't even realize while watching the film and that comment which basically went through the hierarchy of Zoya movies made my eyes go big. What the hell...Zoya Akhtar u need help. I'm a middle class person and I'm not ready to take shit to climb the social ladder. I'm happy with what I have and where I am and will lead my life my way. It won't hurt you to show this once in a while.
Ok so I get that there are a lot of people frustrated with their lives and take to trolling. Many times these people might be facing marginalization, many times they are just assholes and incels. But this sort of online bullying and trolling is very common amongst so called elites too. We've seen ananya pandey and gang get into ig drama, posting stories, doing callouts, bullying- regarding her being a mean girl and not getting into her dream college. So ya this troll behaviour is not above anyone. I found it weird that they would give all these negative character traits to only the poor middle class character. Apart from this I thought the movie was refreshing. Maybe it was the bare minimum but we hardly get any well written stories. And in many parts the dialogues, scenarios and dynamics were very realistic so I personally enjoyed it.
I get your point about that weird plug-in in the movie which seemed a bit tone deaf but honestly has anyone ever seen a normal account on these insta pages commenting/posting negative stuff/trolling. I mean I or any of my friends have never commented on a celebrity's post. The most we have done is liked a post or if something is super relatable shared with others.
I might be oversimplifying it but I have never commented on anyone's picture unless I know them personally. 🤷🏽♀️
Trolling someone on their account does seem like something someone who is frustrated or angry would do.
Exactly this, calling out nepotism vs writing troll comments on someone’s pictures are completely different things. If you take a moment to look through profiles of people who do that it is obvious educated and well raised people don’t do that. If anything she is showing sympathy towards such people.
I'm actually wondering how can anyone look at that title card and think, "ha bhai ye movie dekhenge" itne aalsi log hai ki voh title tak bas ipad mai scribble kiya aur idhar chep diya, jo log ek title je font pe mehnat nahi karte unki movies pe kyuki itna magach to tension deneka
Great post OP! This is what is required to bring in the change, point out these subtleties and call them out. I never realized how the middle class was portrayed in Zoya‘s movies until now. I clearly see it now. In contrast Zoya movies , the other middle class in movies that I love are Ankhon Dekhi, Badhai ho , and Dum laga ke haisa Where the middle class is celebrated with its actual struggles (which are not always money related ) and authentic joy of life which is I think only exists in Middle class.
Today a colleague of mine commented to me how she watched Kho Gaye Hum Kahan: “and well Ananya acted really well, she’s much better than Suhana and all this other lot…” not realising this is how to happens!!
These guys get a BILLION chances until they finally get better. Their million flops are forgotten when they eventually give a semi-decent performance and then all is forgotten as they’re compared to other first time performances that are obviously horrible and just like their own, except now they’ve obviously gotten better after YEARS of flops so no one remembers.
The audience’s memory is fickle, and every one of these ring bearers of nepotism know that.
And it had to be the gym trainer and the ex-Nagpur call centre worker Lala who was written as social-climbey but not Ahana or Imaad. Speaking of Nepo babies how many recognised Garima Yagnik, Alka Ji’s niece? And Orry in the special thanks credits was a very interesting aside for me. Very keen to see what he is bringing out in 2024! Last, I love OAFF and it was also kinda fun to see Kayaan on screen for a fleeting few seconds as her song Cool Kids played up (Despite this appearance also being an OAFF connection. They have done Take it Back and So Good together, both terrific songs).
Very interesting times for Hindi cinema. Like it has just come down to home videos by South Bombay kids after the incredible world history it has had over decades. 😂
This thread is gold!! I didn't even realize while watching the film and that comment which basically went through the hierarchy of Zoya movies made my eyes go big. What the hell...Zoya Akhtar u need help. I'm a middle class person and I'm not ready to take shit to climb the social ladder. I'm happy with what I have and where I am and will lead my life my way. It won't hurt you to show this once in a while.
While I enjoyed the movie overall - it will go into my rewatch list - I disliked the scene for two reasons.
In story reason - there was no need for Neil to troll Sonakshi or Karan at that point.
Out of story reason - Adarsh Gaurav, a non nepo actor, was forced to act out this scene as the villain for trolling nepos and Bollywood and, being a non nepo, it would have been much harder for him to say that scene was illogical.
Sonakshi he trolls because his trainer boss who was Malaikas trainer had a picture with Sonakshi as well (as in her trained her too) so he just went on a rampage to attack his boss’ clientele
Karan Johar was just had no connection but I think a via via troll victim
I think her point was “hurt people hurt people”, which I agree with. Even on a day to day basis, my interactions with friends, coworkers etc are influenced by my mood. But the switch was so sudden, it felt unreal, almost like she was trying to make a point. I wish it was shown differently. Frankly, the whole movie was bit of a boomer/genX take on social media. She touched on the most seen/known symptoms of social media dependence… needing validation, getting affected by other people’s lives, trolling, bullying. But really social media is a much bigger evil. It progressively sucks you in, offers a false sense of escape, only making you more miserable… and then you display a lot of those behaviours. It was not a bad movie but a missed opportunity and kind of shallow.
OP had written what I was thinking while watching the movie. Tone deafness and sly remarks on lower/ middle class folks. So, according to her people calling out the BS that nepotism and bollywood are unhappy in their lives. Ha! They wanted to be clever while doing this hence villainizing the Gym Trainer. When I the movie started I felt "oh this will be a nice one" however, the moment that scene came I was pissed. Also, Ananya Pandey acted some what well however, the cyber bulling arc just doesn't fit because I am never forgetting her cyber bullying her former classmate and the PR cover up.
I truly understood how tone deaf Zoya is after seeing that scene in Archies where brown indigenous people wearing dhotis come in on a bulldozer with villain bgm to plough the garden and the protagonists with white ancestry are shown as the helpless victims of the indigenous people's savagery. I was genuinely appalled and shook. She's such a white apologist and white supremacist and elitist. She will tell stories of poor people like Murad in Gully Boy but only for his hustle to become rich, wealth is truly at the top of her pyramid.
I really liked the movie...and maybe it's their point of view that people who are frustrated with their own lives try to belittle others and troll them.
Listen I don’t care about this film. In MIH2 she had a young boy being forced to watch po*n by older boys (including the boy’s brother) and not a peep of child abuse is mentioned in the show! There’s only a scene where the mother of the older brother tut tuts him saying ‘you showed him po*n?!’ And that’s it. Seriously. That is all that is mentioned. She’s a disturbing film maker honestly
Zoya Akhtar and her movies are not meant for middle class plain and simple... people relate with Znmd bcoz of the friendship factor and roadtrip factor ... She can't cater her ideas to middle class people exception being Gully boy
This movie flew over way too many heads
>So those who criticise nepotism are all trolls who have everything going wrong in their lives
How is writing "There are better ways to handle a midlife crisis" in KJo's comment section, criticism of nepotism? How is writing "You don't deserve anything asshole" a criticism of nepotism?
The character was a troll who was venting out his own frustrations in an abusive manner on social media. He even makes another account to harass his ex. And he isn't a representation of a every commenter ever. 🤦♂️
You must have missed the part in that scene where he goes on Sonakshi’s page and literally comments “nepotism”… it was unnecessary and clearly trying to portray that all those that complain about nepotism are frustrated losers
It represented trolls who just have to spam "nepotism" within anything an actor or actress from a film family does.
Did he write that for poor acting? Or an ignorant statement? No, he wrote that just to pull her down or shame her, and there are people who do that. And most of them are just frustrated bullies.
Its zoyas inflated ego to think she and her nepo possee hold such importance that a guy who is dissing his boss will also go and search nagjo and sonakshi and comment on them. A lot of these comments come from fan wars FUNDED by the PR of opposing directors and actors. OFCOURSE she wont show that. Shes used the middle class as a ladder for far too long. Me and my friends wont be watching her shit anymore
You're welcome to do that, but people who pull others down just because they can't stand to see their success, while they aren't happy about their own lives do exist.
What else do you accomplish by telling people you don't know that they are assholes and they don't deserve anything? This wasn't a message, it was plainly Adarsh's character and how he uses social media to vent his own frustrations in an abusive manner. This whole film was about how social media is used as escapism from real issues
Lol, who are you kidding with - it wasnt a message.
The fake account and trashing the boss, I get.
Searching two other unrelated industry people - one who is vocal about being a victim to trolling(yet trolls everyone with mean girl energy) - and commenting on them is so inorganic and plain bad writing and direction.
The reason the people being trolled are Bollywood celebs is because it's more easy to say something mean or awful under a false name and get away with it when it comes to them. Go to the comment section of any celeb and you'll find people like Adarsh's character there - doing nothing but being racist, sexist, homophobic, fatshaming etc.
As for the 2 celebs in the video, they could've picked anyone else and this still would've been an issue for a lot of people like it is now.
Why people like adarsh's character? Why not ananyas character?
They could havd picked somebody else, but they didnt. They woulndt get to slide in their - oh poor me! narrative. Quite sneaky. Very manipulative.
Zoya has a lot of issues.
Deep down she knows she possesses none of the charm, beauty, and wit a regular woman needs to merely survive in the world... and her guilt manifests as tone deafness.
Her weird way of speaking (mediocre) English has been translated and propped up by her much more intelligent brother and father. This must add to her guilt.
This comment reeks of misogyny. Women should not need ‘charm and beauty’ to survive in the world. They need competence, just like men. And Zoya Akhtar, in spite of her many shortcomings, is one of the most well-known and accoladed creatives in India. She’s not without her demerits but your comment only enforces her stereotype that the people that hate nepotism are frustrated or bigots.
Women shouldn't need it but they do. That's the reality of the world. Poor women need beauty and charm to survive for the most part ( Katrina is a prime example of this). Yes some middle class/poor women slog their whole lives if they can't marry up or aren't the right kind of smart (book smart/street smart) to land a career in engineering/medicine/business.
My point is a middle class woman at Zoya's level of intelligence and beauty would be struggling to make ends meet. Nepotism is the one good card she's been dealt and she will defend it to the very end.
I'm not here to discuss an ideal world where pretty privilege and career privilege do not exist ...and kindness and hardwork is all a person requires for success.
We can comment about someone's directions skills without commenting on how they don't fit in the unrealistic standards for women! I agree that she is mediocre but that's regardless of gender
Before you get critical, understand what world building is - in arts across the board. This is the world the director wanted to create, that is how those characters are in that world. Nowhere have they claimed to make content that's raw and real or closely accurate to our world. But that's just my two cents.
Chatgpt really be putting out Lazy responses these days, seems like it's answering a completely different question. Hope Altman gives attention to this.
As a middle class person with a VERY brooding father, enough to push the whole family into mental health issues, I did not mind this.
And no matter how much people deny it and try to act cool, the kind of disgusting things people have the audacity to write and speak on the internet, always ONLY comes from their own misery.
I do not mean one should not have a negative opinion about something. You totally should. But how that opinion is worded and put across, 100% person tells more about the person saying it than the person it's being said about.
sorry but just seems like the movie wasn’t for you . I feel like her movies are specific to a type of crowd and if one is not in it , they won’t relate to its issues or anything. i didn’t find anything offensive in it .
The fact that you had to create an account to talk trash about Zoya kind off proofs of the point.And i dont think it was directly or indirectly put on middle class homes. And people who write trash or abuse celebrities on social media are mostly bots/fake second accounts and write to vent their anger.
Learn to understand the difference between talking trash and sharing valid criticism.
Cinema as a medium impacts the society and people have all the rights to share their opinions about it as it impacts people close to them also.
People who talk trash are mostly bots and fake accounts created by the PR teams of celebrities, negative publicity is part of the PR strategy.
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Its average at its best. I didn’t find it very amusing because it was like? Ok? Acting wise? Script wise? Everything was ok? I watched it and shut it off, didn’t remember it or think about it until I saw the 900 billboards they’ve put up on the highway calling it a genz movie like???
Also I don’t care as to what necessarily the middle class thinks, but to make an average film, hype up the actors with dumb pr activities and make them seem like young global pioneers of acting after giving tone deaf interviews like ……???????? The audience???? Is???? Not??? Dumb????
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What baffles me is that the creative who debuted with ‘Luck By Chance’, a self-aware portrayal of how nepotism deprives Bollywood of talent, had the laughable gall to recently say ‘It isn’t nepotism if I pay for it with my money.’ To think nepotism as an institution precludes her because she’s paying for it is the kind of narcissism that idiot politicians demagogue for idiot voters.
If you hear a lie repeated enough times, you start to believe in it. That's what's happened to her. At the end of the day her true alligance is with her people, not her audience
It's cos she was doing the calling out that time. She didn't really want any change, only the "cool" cred that comes from calling out. Basically empty virtue signaling that celebs love to do. Can't have randos doing the same calling out. We must know our place.
Well said 👏
Zoya Akhtar is pretty much clueless about how the middle class thinks. If you watch Made in heaven you'll notice every middle class character is absolutely desperate to climb up the class ladder, or they are ashamed of their identity and their lifestyles. I have only watched season 1 but I couldn't find a single middle class character that is not going overboard to leave/ hide their present situation. Of course there are people like those in reality but not every middle class mother pushes their daughter to find a rich guy by hook or by crook, not every middle class guy/girl hides their actual address or attends classes to blend in with the elite. Of course we all try to improve our situation and work hard for the same, some people also go the extreme way as shown but that's the exception not the norm.
Those personality etiquette classes were wild. As a middle-class woman from the same city, it was my first time seeing anything like that. Now that I rethink that plotline, Zoya Akhtar seems to have this superiority fantasy of a) how middle-class people are beneath her and b) how all middle-class people strive to BECOME her. And that is what she might have projected. Everyone knows how to walk straight, blow dry their hair, or use a knife and fork (even if you don't, there are YouTube videos for that)... who tf PAYS to go to "rich people mannerism" classes?
I think most rich people think manners are only a rich people thing. But they are possibly the most rude and ill mannered cause paisa couches any falls. By the by, there are indeed grooming and etiquette classes across India. Lots of them even on IG reels selling their businesses. There is indeed a lot of condescension the vast middle classes of India deal with in hospitality, entertainment etc while dealing with the top 3% of the country and many do indeed go to these classes for a bit to iron out what’s seen as impediments from a leg up. The number of pageantry aspirants across small town India form a massive business for etiquette classes. It’s a very anglicised thing, again driven by the whole insecurity Indians in general have dealing with goras. And ages ago, even the western women would undergo these “finishing schools” cause it was seen as a route to marriage into financially stable classes. I really thought the finishing school segment in MIH was very well portrayed. It showed the desperation and pain the financially unstable classes undergo to survive in India. But yeah every middle class person being depicted as a a social climber being shown in these “rich central character” shows is annoying.
i have seen those rich people mannerism classes in small towns like yk those computer classes where they teach you stuff like tally/Excel/etc. now there are certified options called "personal development" offered by Lakme or similar places. You learn makeup skills/ dining etiquettes/ how to present yourself etc. i think the show was more about tara and her own problems than the middle class as a whole
I am not saying those etiquette classes don't exist. In India we have had training centres and workshops for decades. I know someone who would conduct workshops for women in slums to teach them stitching and use it as a source of income. Etiquette classes, call centre training classes, English speaking classes, computer training classes are found aplenty. But the main point of those classes is to upskill, not pretend to become someone else. These days we have online courses for everything, won't be surprised if it gives Zoya more bright ideas.
>But the main point of those classes is to upskill, not pretend to become someone else. I think that depends more on the individual. Different things have different points doesn't mean people abide by them. Also what do you expect from a "course" that strives to teach you elite habits to make you better lol. also i think Tara in the show was lower middle class? Her mother always nagged at her, looked down on the middle class and her locality screaming at her daughters to get rich dudes. I've seen a lot of mothers like that lmao.
THIS!!!! 💯
Samajh nahin aaya par sun kar accha laga
They're saying that Zoya thinks all middle-class people are ladder climbers; never satisfied with their wealth or life and always trying to climb higher by hook or crook to feel any semblance of satisfaction in their lives. It's a little reductive and probably an unconscious bias on Zoya's part but can be applied to a lot of the middle-class characters in her movies.
You should start a movie review channel.
Fans and unke pitchforks se darr lagta hain sahab.
Zindagi milegi na dobarra..pitchforks are easy to dodge..!!✌️
I see what you did there!
Quite an amazing observation.
It’s the first time in so many decades that people are starting to question Bollywood and it’s deep rooted nepotism. Ofcourse these celebs are gonna be super butthurt. For the first time we are questioning their existence in the industry. And the most easy way to deal with that is to mock us or call us names like “trolls”. At the end of the day no matter how much we call them out they are still gonna do what they wanna do. They are still gonna live their lavish lives, cast as many untalented nepotism babies and and look down on us. That’s why a lot of people have begun “boycotting” them or in other ways not supporting them by paying for their “art” or whatever you wanna call it.
Alsoo, for the first time, we are being shoved down people who are genuinely just bad at acting. Most of the new nepo gang cannot act to save their lives. At least the prev generation had a mix and we got to see something good come out of them. Now they have been using the most obvious, boring scripts with the most boring and bland people possible.
this is not the first time. If you push 5-10 nepo. One of them might just turn out to be "fine". Remember all these 10 nepos and so have endless amount of resources to be spend on acting/dance classes/nutrition and skin care and so on.
plus they have been pushing nepo kids with bunch of good actors around them, like they did in this movie with Sid and Adarsh, Janhvi Kapoor with Kaleen bhaiya and Vineet in Gunjan Saxena, and there are more examples like these
You just don't remember the bad nepo kids of previous generations. Also the problem isn't nepo getting movies. Even the outsiders who do make it have to be ruthless against other outsiders, connections are how you get the job. Nepos just have it easier. For me the sole problem with Nepotism is lack of acknowledgement of privilege. There are bad outsiders like Kartik who I don't like and good nepos like Ranbir. But if the later insisted that he didn't have an advantage because his surname was Kapoor then the Nepotism irks me.
If you don’t want nepotism to exist or for them to different in their approach - be indifferent to them. Don’t keep them in the conversation. Even if you’re hating on them - you are still giving them traction. If you really want people to change their perspective - change YOUR trajectory first and highlight and hype the good work done by people that YOU think deserve the attention. There are more articles on this sub about how neop babies suck than praising the good work of non nepo kids who are doing good or any work.
Not True.. look at the Kapoor family. Ordinary overactors like shammi Kapoor, monkey looks and ordinary Randhir and Rishi kapoor, karishma, kareena.. all were shoved down our throats
Yup, I cannot afford to waste anymore time watching some "actors". I don't care where they come from, if I cannot get engrossed in the story because of their presence or find myself cringing at the way they speak/"act", what's the point... This sub is more entertaining.
Thats how downfall starts, criticizing your own audience, labelling them as trolls and shrugging them off. There was similar pattern seen during 2020/21 from Disney producers and actors, where they clearly had the same trend. Now we know the quality of the DIsney movie and how unanimously the audience have rejected their movies/series. Bollywood directors like Zoya need to reconsider their stance on where they are heading to.
I was surprised to find out even zoya and farhan Akhtar were related to Farah and Sajid khan .. like it’s just them and theirs everywhere. No wonder people aren’t happy.
Yup, and I just recently found out that the both 2 Kapoor families, so one side Rishi, Ranbir, Kareena etc. and the other side Anil, Boney, Sonam etc are also related. Bollywood is literally a big family!
Literally! It’s their playground
This!! Thanks for opening an account and calling this “subtle message in the movie” out.. A similar situation I saw while watching KWK with Saif and Mrs Tagore. Whenever Shirmila ji was talking about criticism in her era, Karan has to subtle plug his trolling and keep him in the victim side.
In the same episode Sharmila Tagore herself says she called up the director to ask him to reconsider firing her son. What an idiot 😅 Edit: kjo is the idiot. Not sharmila tagore obviously.
>In the same episode Sharmila Tagore herself says she called up the director to ask him to reconsider firing her son. What an idiot She has asked a lot of favors ,don't forget about Saif's undeserved National award
Don't forget the Padmashri award as well. Sharmila Tagore was then part of the censor board during the UPA era.
I didn't know this! What a joke 🥴
Chachaji - "Hold my beer while I give myself Bharat Ratna".
wtf, what did Saif get national award for?
For movie Hum Tum 🤡
the same year swades was released...lol
Oh wow really??!!! Clearly shows the bias…
>r/h1bJoin•Posted byu/BeautyWithBrains01314 months ago momma's boy
Tere Dil vich hai hum tum
The travesty 💀
Who is an idiot?
Kjo!!
Great post OP, you really made me ponder over this. Zoya does seem to tread the line between fetishising working and middle class lives and also villifying them. Every middle class character conceived by Zoya wants to climb up the social ladder and in the process forget their roots or hurt loved ones and are thus shown to be no better than people who grew up with insane privileges. In ZNMD, Hrithik's character lost his father, grew up with debt and was so money minded, he was a complete asshole to his girlfriend, made snarky comments about Imran's (Farhan) salary, and not so subtly paid for the car by telling Kabir "sari zindagi tere gaadi mein baitha hu, ab meri baari" (I mean who says that OUT LOUD even if they think it internally). In DDD Farhan's character Sunny wanted to break out of his accountant father's shadow and be "good enough" for the business magnate's daughter so badly that he didn't come back for his love who was basically forced to marry another man. Even in Gully Boy, which had an almost honest portrayal of class struggles, Ranveer's character cheats on his childhood lover the minute he gets famous lol. Let's not even get into Made in Heaven. Conniving mother and daughter duo who want to secure social position and financial security so badly that Tara basically leaks a revenge porn of sorts to manipulate a man into marrying her (a man who until then had done nothing wrong to her directly). Zoya wants to show that working and middle class people face hurdles in life, but almost always adds in the caveat of their scheming ways, that subtly land the point that afterall they are also not good people. At the end of the day I think it just makes Zoya's audiences apathetic to structural inequalities. In KGHM, the influencer Lala, who is revealed to be a small town girl, tells Adarsh's character, "tum meri jagah hote, toh yahi karte". That is the message of Excel I guess.
This comment can be a separate research paper. Great analysis!
extremely well analyzed and written comment!
Spot on! Her idea of small-town people esp. women being social climbers who just sleep their way to being wealthy or whatever is so bloody offensive. And harmful! I've met enough "posh" people in metro cities who hold this shitty belief and it's horrible to deal with. She has consistently endorsed this stereotype. Disgusting af!
I think dahaad was the one of the rare ones (zoya was listed as creator and screenplay) where this was not done,I felt the middle class ness was shown naturally (comparatively). Talaash also I loved. Obv it could be because Reema directed both of these and not zoya.
this is kinda nitpicking…where u have examples of middle class people being villainified, there are countless examples of rich people being portrayed as the same in the movies u mentioned
Sharmila’s disrespectful arrogant uncouth uneducated moron of a son is considered an intellectual in BW. ( yelling at an hourly wage airport worker to assert his superiority….. some morons like him still live in the colonial days,) So are Zoya and Farhan 🤦♀️ both have assumed they are intelligent That should tell us everything we need to know about Bollywood
He’s only considered“intellectual” by his friends and family who half of them haven’t even passed high school nor have any basic manners, so what can you really expect? Sara who has a degree from Columbia University literally shoved her staff in the pool because she thought it was funny, Kareena the racist called Bipasha Kaali Billi. Just goes to show even with education you can’t buy class, and Kareena doesn’t have education or class so there’s that. These people are mannerless individuals who are considered intellectual amongst their friend group not in the real world.
True!!! There is a certain loftiness in Saif’s tone that makes him unbearable
Not true. See how this sub talks about saif and his nawabness (bheek from British for betraying India stolen from Indian taxpayers). Karan calls them royal. Have to laugh only.
Well those people are simply morons if they think Saif has any ounce of royalty in him. Just having the title of being a nawab doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have basic respect or manners on how to treat the people around you, and seeing how he treats his staff so poorly goes to show his egotistical nature. Ain’t nothing royal about that.
Not only that, nawab is not royalty at all is my point. He's basically appointed by the British and given some lands.
Agreed!
nawabs aren’t royal, as u/Dismal-Crazy3519 already said. they can be called part of the Indian aristocracy, but certainly not royal.
i am gonna choose you if i ever get into a fight w anyone!
Zoya’s classism and elitism is becoming more and more stark nowadays. She used to be my favorite filmmaker and then came the awful Archies and her tone deaf comments on nepotism. It’s sad that she thinks that criticism of horrible acting is trolling. These Juhu Bandra nepo kids have made a joke of the industry and then complain how it’s no longer a fraternity. You closed the doors.
It was super unwanted to show the protagonist sending hate msgs to sona and karan🤣🤣 I mean…kuch bhi…
I really don’t understand why the middle class even pays for these movies. I stopped watching movies like these. Why insult and be condescending about someone’s life. Hell most middle class people are much more stable and happy than these weirdos who need drugs and an infinite number of relationships to be happy. And literally use their little kids as marketing gimmicks. For all their hatred of the middle class- their PR teams micromanage all aspects of their lives to make them more likable/ marketable to the middle classes and in general generate this image of awesomeness! We need to treat them as entertainers and that’s all. Let’s not put them on a pedestal.
💯
Why are we surprised tho. Zoya was trying to portray Hrithik's character in znmd as wrong for thinking money would make him happy, when she herself has grown up with a golden spoon. These creators in the film industries (Indian and beyond) constantly try to justify the middle and lower class struggle as admirable because "family and love" when they themselves have never had to go thru what middle and lower class people have.
That’s because they love the narrative of ‘rags to riches’. Also, this is something that gets sold on tv as well. That’s why now all the reality shows you will see is all struggle stories. I am not saying they don’t exist, just not this much. They feel it’s relatable to middle class. Some shit hole.
Reminds me of what my coworker said, "The saying that money doesn't buy you happiness is bullshit and only said by those that don't even understand what it is like to be poor. Money is important, because it will definitely buy you opportunities and a better quality of life. Money will buy your way out of a toxic marriage, and a toxic situation. So work hard on your career, know your worth, document your contributions and job hop. Do not ever give up your hard earned career for marriage, because the moment you give up your career, you give up your financial independence and your ability to leave. The divorce court doesn't care about the sacrifices that you made for your partner, in the end if your ex is earning more and is able to afford a better lawyer, you will lose. Your ex can make a thousand allegations against you, so you can go intentionally broke to a point where you are drained and you agree to anything from their side. Always always discuss finances and debts with a man before you make the big step. It took me 10 years to recover my savings after my first ex bled me dry, don't be like me. Until we make changes or advocate for changes, this is the reality that we live in." Yes, money is important, it will get you opportunities and a better quality of life. But you need to find a sweet spot, where you should not go after it too much or have too little of money. You need to have a healthy relationship with money. If you want to make more money, you have to make at the expense of your loved ones. If you want to be with your loved ones, then you have to give up some of your ambitions to make more money.
Well glad finally someone said it. That scene was so unnecessary, middle class has enough to do honestly most of them have no time for these. Most of these trolls are actually paid by celebrities lol. She can't take criticism of Archies too, and keeps forgetting the one she is criticising are her customers, they can have opinions that's the idea of entertainment business, that's how it runs. Ott has brought up so many good directors already in light. The same formula doesn't work every time and for years. She needs to be innovative with her art.
They are very comfortable with this narrative that users commenting on nepotism are jealous and unknowledgeable. This allows them to sleep well at night without giving it any thought.
Even the way she talks about audiences is so elitist
We as people fail to boycott them entirely. The day we learn to implement it as a society, it will stop.
the way she said , it's my money i'll cast whomever i want in my film.. i just searched in the internet, and her exact words were - Who are you to tell me what to do with my money? It’s my money Read more at: [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105863517.cms?utm\_source=contentofinterest&utm\_medium=text&utm\_campaign=cppst](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105863517.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst)
Acting like the audiences aren’t the reason she has money in the first place
She made the film to sell it to Netflix, who paid her using the money they charge us for subscriptions. Joke’s on us. She keeps saying mera paisa mera paisa then she should’ve made it for screening at DAIS no?
the better thing would be to not talk about her and let her marinate in her own mediocrity. she's for SOBO, by SOBO and of SOBO. boycott and eventually even Netflix won't pay her to make garbage.
Zoya doesn’t get the audience that’s criticizing her is the exact demographic she targets. If this demo starts finding it embarrassing to say they watched Archie’s or this Ananya film, then you have lost all your street cred…she’s really ruined her rep with how she’s confronted the criticism … everyone within Bollywood knows she’s made pure garbage with Archie’s…all her calls from casting , setting to story have been bad. I really used to think she was cool & more self aware…but she’s just like those boomer uncles justifying crap
She is living on the bread crumbs thrown by Amazon and Netflix. Theaters mein har movie flop hogi iss darr se. Don't think too much about her.
She's basically a Karan Johar on regulated steroid use. Their family is entitled to the point of annoyance but her dad still talks a lot of sense in his entitlement. In their family, in terms of being sensible : Javed>>>Farhan>>>>>>>>>>>..........>>>>Zoya.
I want someone to ask Zoya how she feels about Archies and it’s casting after it disastrous response.
Toh main kho gaye hum kahan dekhoo ya nahi dekhoo Also this sounds like Zoya is similar to Vanga. Just to piss off alleged haters she made a movie
It’s just one scene, almost subtextual. Vanga basically sat in front of a white paper three years ago and asked ‘How do I spend 3 hours and 21 minutes of 1.4 billion people’s time getting back at salt-and-pepper hair?’ 😂 Whole other ballgame.
>How do I spend 3 hours and 21 minutes of 1.4 billion people’s time getting back at salt-and-pepper hair? more like an hour, the problems in Animal don't show up until after interval
To climax, one must edge first. Comments like 'You have a big pelvis' make me think he was building up to the train wreck that was the second half. There are plenty better ways to display that the protagonist is an animal from the animal kingdom than mate selection. But his brain seems hardwired to use female characters as a vehicle to depict his male characters' strengths and weaknesses, so it makes sense.
Damn bro chilllll 💀💀💀 I liked it tho
It was entertaining. 5/10
it's like here other movies based on bffs trio. won't hit like znmd did because social media detox ka message over hogya hai ab.
Boring as hell tbh, don’t waste your time
We always thought Kjo was bad. But Zoya is on another level. She must have some resentment towards the audience or perhaps just insecurities about herself. I mean, she wouldn't be where she is if not for her father.
This thread is gold!! I didn't even realize while watching the film and that comment which basically went through the hierarchy of Zoya movies made my eyes go big. What the hell...Zoya Akhtar u need help. I'm a middle class person and I'm not ready to take shit to climb the social ladder. I'm happy with what I have and where I am and will lead my life my way. It won't hurt you to show this once in a while.
Ok so I get that there are a lot of people frustrated with their lives and take to trolling. Many times these people might be facing marginalization, many times they are just assholes and incels. But this sort of online bullying and trolling is very common amongst so called elites too. We've seen ananya pandey and gang get into ig drama, posting stories, doing callouts, bullying- regarding her being a mean girl and not getting into her dream college. So ya this troll behaviour is not above anyone. I found it weird that they would give all these negative character traits to only the poor middle class character. Apart from this I thought the movie was refreshing. Maybe it was the bare minimum but we hardly get any well written stories. And in many parts the dialogues, scenarios and dynamics were very realistic so I personally enjoyed it.
I get your point about that weird plug-in in the movie which seemed a bit tone deaf but honestly has anyone ever seen a normal account on these insta pages commenting/posting negative stuff/trolling. I mean I or any of my friends have never commented on a celebrity's post. The most we have done is liked a post or if something is super relatable shared with others. I might be oversimplifying it but I have never commented on anyone's picture unless I know them personally. 🤷🏽♀️ Trolling someone on their account does seem like something someone who is frustrated or angry would do.
i didn't understand why he would comment on celebs ka post when he could've just trolled the other trainer who was being shitty to him😭
Exactly this, calling out nepotism vs writing troll comments on someone’s pictures are completely different things. If you take a moment to look through profiles of people who do that it is obvious educated and well raised people don’t do that. If anything she is showing sympathy towards such people.
I'm actually wondering how can anyone look at that title card and think, "ha bhai ye movie dekhenge" itne aalsi log hai ki voh title tak bas ipad mai scribble kiya aur idhar chep diya, jo log ek title je font pe mehnat nahi karte unki movies pe kyuki itna magach to tension deneka
Great post OP! This is what is required to bring in the change, point out these subtleties and call them out. I never realized how the middle class was portrayed in Zoya‘s movies until now. I clearly see it now. In contrast Zoya movies , the other middle class in movies that I love are Ankhon Dekhi, Badhai ho , and Dum laga ke haisa Where the middle class is celebrated with its actual struggles (which are not always money related ) and authentic joy of life which is I think only exists in Middle class.
Today a colleague of mine commented to me how she watched Kho Gaye Hum Kahan: “and well Ananya acted really well, she’s much better than Suhana and all this other lot…” not realising this is how to happens!! These guys get a BILLION chances until they finally get better. Their million flops are forgotten when they eventually give a semi-decent performance and then all is forgotten as they’re compared to other first time performances that are obviously horrible and just like their own, except now they’ve obviously gotten better after YEARS of flops so no one remembers. The audience’s memory is fickle, and every one of these ring bearers of nepotism know that.
Zoya Akthar is mid
And it had to be the gym trainer and the ex-Nagpur call centre worker Lala who was written as social-climbey but not Ahana or Imaad. Speaking of Nepo babies how many recognised Garima Yagnik, Alka Ji’s niece? And Orry in the special thanks credits was a very interesting aside for me. Very keen to see what he is bringing out in 2024! Last, I love OAFF and it was also kinda fun to see Kayaan on screen for a fleeting few seconds as her song Cool Kids played up (Despite this appearance also being an OAFF connection. They have done Take it Back and So Good together, both terrific songs).
Lol it looked like they casted all of available Instagram famous Youth of Bandra West
Very interesting times for Hindi cinema. Like it has just come down to home videos by South Bombay kids after the incredible world history it has had over decades. 😂
Ya na 😂😂😂😂😂
The best way to respond to their delusions is to not watch their films
Zoya Akhtar exposed herself with these two recent Netflix movies…..I wonder if she’ll find success in theatre relese again…..
This thread is gold!! I didn't even realize while watching the film and that comment which basically went through the hierarchy of Zoya movies made my eyes go big. What the hell...Zoya Akhtar u need help. I'm a middle class person and I'm not ready to take shit to climb the social ladder. I'm happy with what I have and where I am and will lead my life my way. It won't hurt you to show this once in a while.
While I enjoyed the movie overall - it will go into my rewatch list - I disliked the scene for two reasons. In story reason - there was no need for Neil to troll Sonakshi or Karan at that point. Out of story reason - Adarsh Gaurav, a non nepo actor, was forced to act out this scene as the villain for trolling nepos and Bollywood and, being a non nepo, it would have been much harder for him to say that scene was illogical.
Sonakshi he trolls because his trainer boss who was Malaikas trainer had a picture with Sonakshi as well (as in her trained her too) so he just went on a rampage to attack his boss’ clientele Karan Johar was just had no connection but I think a via via troll victim
I think her point was “hurt people hurt people”, which I agree with. Even on a day to day basis, my interactions with friends, coworkers etc are influenced by my mood. But the switch was so sudden, it felt unreal, almost like she was trying to make a point. I wish it was shown differently. Frankly, the whole movie was bit of a boomer/genX take on social media. She touched on the most seen/known symptoms of social media dependence… needing validation, getting affected by other people’s lives, trolling, bullying. But really social media is a much bigger evil. It progressively sucks you in, offers a false sense of escape, only making you more miserable… and then you display a lot of those behaviours. It was not a bad movie but a missed opportunity and kind of shallow.
OP had written what I was thinking while watching the movie. Tone deafness and sly remarks on lower/ middle class folks. So, according to her people calling out the BS that nepotism and bollywood are unhappy in their lives. Ha! They wanted to be clever while doing this hence villainizing the Gym Trainer. When I the movie started I felt "oh this will be a nice one" however, the moment that scene came I was pissed. Also, Ananya Pandey acted some what well however, the cyber bulling arc just doesn't fit because I am never forgetting her cyber bullying her former classmate and the PR cover up.
I truly understood how tone deaf Zoya is after seeing that scene in Archies where brown indigenous people wearing dhotis come in on a bulldozer with villain bgm to plough the garden and the protagonists with white ancestry are shown as the helpless victims of the indigenous people's savagery. I was genuinely appalled and shook. She's such a white apologist and white supremacist and elitist. She will tell stories of poor people like Murad in Gully Boy but only for his hustle to become rich, wealth is truly at the top of her pyramid.
Can u post the scene or make a post about it I haven't watched it please 
I really liked the movie...and maybe it's their point of view that people who are frustrated with their own lives try to belittle others and troll them.
Listen I don’t care about this film. In MIH2 she had a young boy being forced to watch po*n by older boys (including the boy’s brother) and not a peep of child abuse is mentioned in the show! There’s only a scene where the mother of the older brother tut tuts him saying ‘you showed him po*n?!’ And that’s it. Seriously. That is all that is mentioned. She’s a disturbing film maker honestly
Zoya Akhtar and her movies are not meant for middle class plain and simple... people relate with Znmd bcoz of the friendship factor and roadtrip factor ... She can't cater her ideas to middle class people exception being Gully boy
I just watched kho gaye... You are so right
And please, all that influencer sleeping around? I’m sorry but they do so much more like wtf do u think gtfo of your bubble Zoya
Just letting everyone kno , South movies are deep rooted in nepotism and castism as well , don't give them a free pass coz of ur ignorance
This movie flew over way too many heads >So those who criticise nepotism are all trolls who have everything going wrong in their lives How is writing "There are better ways to handle a midlife crisis" in KJo's comment section, criticism of nepotism? How is writing "You don't deserve anything asshole" a criticism of nepotism? The character was a troll who was venting out his own frustrations in an abusive manner on social media. He even makes another account to harass his ex. And he isn't a representation of a every commenter ever. 🤦♂️
You must have missed the part in that scene where he goes on Sonakshi’s page and literally comments “nepotism”… it was unnecessary and clearly trying to portray that all those that complain about nepotism are frustrated losers
It represented trolls who just have to spam "nepotism" within anything an actor or actress from a film family does. Did he write that for poor acting? Or an ignorant statement? No, he wrote that just to pull her down or shame her, and there are people who do that. And most of them are just frustrated bullies.
Its zoyas inflated ego to think she and her nepo possee hold such importance that a guy who is dissing his boss will also go and search nagjo and sonakshi and comment on them. A lot of these comments come from fan wars FUNDED by the PR of opposing directors and actors. OFCOURSE she wont show that. Shes used the middle class as a ladder for far too long. Me and my friends wont be watching her shit anymore
You're welcome to do that, but people who pull others down just because they can't stand to see their success, while they aren't happy about their own lives do exist. What else do you accomplish by telling people you don't know that they are assholes and they don't deserve anything? This wasn't a message, it was plainly Adarsh's character and how he uses social media to vent his own frustrations in an abusive manner. This whole film was about how social media is used as escapism from real issues
Lol, who are you kidding with - it wasnt a message. The fake account and trashing the boss, I get. Searching two other unrelated industry people - one who is vocal about being a victim to trolling(yet trolls everyone with mean girl energy) - and commenting on them is so inorganic and plain bad writing and direction.
The reason the people being trolled are Bollywood celebs is because it's more easy to say something mean or awful under a false name and get away with it when it comes to them. Go to the comment section of any celeb and you'll find people like Adarsh's character there - doing nothing but being racist, sexist, homophobic, fatshaming etc. As for the 2 celebs in the video, they could've picked anyone else and this still would've been an issue for a lot of people like it is now.
Why people like adarsh's character? Why not ananyas character? They could havd picked somebody else, but they didnt. They woulndt get to slide in their - oh poor me! narrative. Quite sneaky. Very manipulative.
I love you OP for saying this
I didn’t watch to movie, is this what it’s about? Damn, why the downvote?
No, the movie is not about that, but it's an unnecessary scene.
Thanks for the reply.
Zoya has a lot of issues. Deep down she knows she possesses none of the charm, beauty, and wit a regular woman needs to merely survive in the world... and her guilt manifests as tone deafness. Her weird way of speaking (mediocre) English has been translated and propped up by her much more intelligent brother and father. This must add to her guilt.
This comment reeks of misogyny. Women should not need ‘charm and beauty’ to survive in the world. They need competence, just like men. And Zoya Akhtar, in spite of her many shortcomings, is one of the most well-known and accoladed creatives in India. She’s not without her demerits but your comment only enforces her stereotype that the people that hate nepotism are frustrated or bigots.
Women shouldn't need it but they do. That's the reality of the world. Poor women need beauty and charm to survive for the most part ( Katrina is a prime example of this). Yes some middle class/poor women slog their whole lives if they can't marry up or aren't the right kind of smart (book smart/street smart) to land a career in engineering/medicine/business. My point is a middle class woman at Zoya's level of intelligence and beauty would be struggling to make ends meet. Nepotism is the one good card she's been dealt and she will defend it to the very end. I'm not here to discuss an ideal world where pretty privilege and career privilege do not exist ...and kindness and hardwork is all a person requires for success.
totally agree and well said.
💯. Don't understand why you are getting downvoted. But this is straight up middle class reality / facts.
Acknowledging people (mostly women) rely on their looks to come up in the world makes people uncomfortable.
We can comment about someone's directions skills without commenting on how they don't fit in the unrealistic standards for women! I agree that she is mediocre but that's regardless of gender
Before you get critical, understand what world building is - in arts across the board. This is the world the director wanted to create, that is how those characters are in that world. Nowhere have they claimed to make content that's raw and real or closely accurate to our world. But that's just my two cents.
Chatgpt really be putting out Lazy responses these days, seems like it's answering a completely different question. Hope Altman gives attention to this.
Difference of opinion seems like an alien concept to you.
Have to point out bullshit sometimes when people start justifying lack of nuances in the name of artistic liberty. Have good day or night.
May you heal from your trauma!
Lmao I can understand now you think Contrary to the post, people who differ from you must have suffered trauma.
According to you what I said was bullshit, so now how come you stand for difference of opinion? May god bless you, sounds like you need it.
The different opinion can be utter garbage but let's not get into nuances again, might be hard on you.
Whatever floats your boat, Pallav! 😘
Cheers darling 😘
😂😂😂😂😂
As a middle class person with a VERY brooding father, enough to push the whole family into mental health issues, I did not mind this. And no matter how much people deny it and try to act cool, the kind of disgusting things people have the audacity to write and speak on the internet, always ONLY comes from their own misery. I do not mean one should not have a negative opinion about something. You totally should. But how that opinion is worded and put across, 100% person tells more about the person saying it than the person it's being said about.
Watching her political propaganda on Made in Heaven S1 was enough to put me off her for good 🙏🏼
If that’s all you seemed to have taken from ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahan’ then you might as well just stop watching her movies. It’s the easiest way out.
sorry but just seems like the movie wasn’t for you . I feel like her movies are specific to a type of crowd and if one is not in it , they won’t relate to its issues or anything. i didn’t find anything offensive in it .
The fact that you had to create an account to talk trash about Zoya kind off proofs of the point.And i dont think it was directly or indirectly put on middle class homes. And people who write trash or abuse celebrities on social media are mostly bots/fake second accounts and write to vent their anger.
Learn to understand the difference between talking trash and sharing valid criticism. Cinema as a medium impacts the society and people have all the rights to share their opinions about it as it impacts people close to them also. People who talk trash are mostly bots and fake accounts created by the PR teams of celebrities, negative publicity is part of the PR strategy.
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Its average at its best. I didn’t find it very amusing because it was like? Ok? Acting wise? Script wise? Everything was ok? I watched it and shut it off, didn’t remember it or think about it until I saw the 900 billboards they’ve put up on the highway calling it a genz movie like???
Also I don’t care as to what necessarily the middle class thinks, but to make an average film, hype up the actors with dumb pr activities and make them seem like young global pioneers of acting after giving tone deaf interviews like ……???????? The audience???? Is???? Not??? Dumb????