Amaal Mallik on nepotism debate: Armaan and I may be having the Malik tag but we have clawed our way up

The debate around ‘nepotism’ has rekindled yet again post Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. A section of netizens and Bollywood celebs came out to condemn nepotism in the industry and lashed out at star kids. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that for some star kids it was not easy to achieve the stardom so easily. For example, Amaal Mallik and Armaan Malik (son of actor-singer Daboo Malik) had their own share of struggles before achieving success in the music industry.

We recently had a conversation with music composer and singer Amaal Mallik who spoke his heart out about the industry. Amaal said that there are nepotism and politics in the music industry also and he was also removed from many films due to politics or power games. He said, “There are people who have removed me from their films and their production houses have shut down. But you have to be confident. I want to tell everyone that ‘don’t give up’. Every industry has all these, so don’t just blame Bollywood. You either fight or don’t come to this industry. It’s a tough fight. Even I have cried nights over losing films. But you have to keep the fighting spirit on.”

He also said, “You should have nerves of steel. If you are coming to Bollywood, be prepared for the worst because this industry is not a bed of roses.”

Amaal shared his own experiences of how it was not easy for him and Armaan to survive in the business. He said, “Armaan and I may be having the Malik tag but we have clawed our way up. Even when we got ‘Jai Ho‘ with Salman Khan, it was the same process going to the Mehboob Studio waiting for seven hours for the man to come out of his van. The actor connected to me and he gave me the chance. After that, I didn’t have work for one year and I almost went to New Zealand to become a burger seller and start studying M.Com. Armaan at the age of 10 participated on a reality show. No person having a name goes into ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’. He went there to realise where he stands and that’s brave of him. He sang for Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Bhoothnath’ on his own merit. Not that Daboo Malik picked up and called Vishal-Shekhar to give work to his son or told Salman Khan to hear his son. We went with our work and got accepted and rejected by people. ‘Sooraj Dooba Hain Yaaron’ was rejected by 40 producers and then Bhushan Kumar took it and the rest is where we are today.”

You can watch the interview here.

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Also Read: Amaal Mallik: I’ve been knocked out of many films due to power games