New Delhi: The debate between outsiders versus insiders is getting louder with each passing day. While star kids (or ‘nappo kids’, as trolls call them) are being boycotted just for being born to celebrity parents, actors with non-filmy backgrounds seem to be on the safe side. However, there are some that are not of both, or shall we say, of both?
Some of the actors whom we consider to be outsiders of the industry are not outsiders at all. He may have had non-famous parents and may have auditioned for roles and struggled to get big banner movies, but he is far from being a complete outsider. There are celebrities in his family and film connections that we may not have known or known before.
Here are five actors who, despite being known as ‘outsiders’ in the industry, had some background or connections to showbiz:
Yami Gautam
Yami got her break in Vicky Donor alongside Ayushmann Khurrana, another outsider in Bollywood. However, he is not an outsider at all.
Her father Mukesh Gautam is a renowned film director and producer in the Punjabi film industry and the Vice President of PTC Punjabi Channel. His sister also works in Punjabi films.
Vijay Deverakonda
In an interview for his latest film Ligar, it was revealed that the south star is actually the son of former television director Govardhan Rao who directed a few Telugu serials. It was here that perhaps he was bitten by the acting bug.
Rao stopped directing before Deverakonda became an actor because the shows didn’t work.
Vicky Kaushal
Kaushal’s father Sham Kaushal has acted in over 100 films as an action director and has even won several Filmfare and IIFA Awards. However, he believes he fits somewhere in between the outsider-insider label as his father did not help him get the film.
Kiara Advani
Shershaah fame Kiara Advani shared on Koffee With Karan that actress Juhi Chawla was a family friend who introduced her to the directors at their house party, but she herself comes from a family of celebrities.
Late actor Ashok Kumar is her step-grandfather and Saeed Jaffrey, who played Chawla’s father in several films in the 90s, is her great-grandfather.
Ranveer Singh
Deepika Padukone’s husband is not the only label who is projected as Ranveer Singh. He is known as one of those outsiders who paved his way in Bollywood.
Although his full name is Ranveer Singh Bhavnani. His mother Anju Bhavnani is the cousin of Anil Kapoor’s wife Sunita Kapoor, which makes her Sonam Kapoor’s cousin.
He is also the grandson of popular supporting actress Chand Burke of the 1950s.
(with agency input)