Why Salman Khan goes out of his way to promote star kids

London: Salman Khan is all over the small screen. No, ‘Bigg Boss’ is yet to be aired on the idiot box, but Salman has made an appearance in ‘Dance+’, ‘Comedy Nights Bachao’, and ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’. Interestingly, Salman in his ‘Being Human’ avatar is accompanied by two debutante stars Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty, who will soon be debuting in ‘Hero’, directed by Nikhil Advani.

Incidentally, the two newcomers in question come with famous Bollywood surnames. Sooraj is the son of popular hero Aditya Pancholi and critically acclaimed actress Zarina Wahab while Athiya is the daughter of Suneil Shetty, famous action hero of the 90s.

Being one of the co-producers along with Subhash Ghai, it is understandable that Salman has been taking deep interest in the movie. True to his reputation of being a messiah to all the newcomers with famous surnames, Salman is ready to promote the two newcomers as much as possible. The actor crooned a title track for Hero, which incidentally is a remake of 1983 hit of the same name, directed by Ghai, starring Jackie Shroff and Meenakshi Seshadri. Newcomers Sooraj and Athiya, have evoked huge interest ever since the movie was announced. Sooraj’s name was embroiled in the Jiah Khan suicide case, while Athiya has been a head turner on Instagram.

Bollywood dynasties rule in the Hindi film industry, where every big filmmaker intends to cast a star kid. This automatically fuels up huge PR gimmicks, elevates media hype and pumps up public attention. Being the movie loving nation, the audience identify with the star-kids carrying the lineage of their parents. Thus, the anticipation over the launch of the star kids automatically increases, building up the hype for the film.

Salman has always enjoyed being the godfather and has been kind towards children of his co-stars struggling to find a feat in the industry.

Boney Kapoor’s son Arjun Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter Sonakshi, the famous overweight brats of rich families are the biggest success stories launched by Salman. It was on the insistence of Salman that the two youngsters progressed from fat to fab.

Salman was equally supportive of Sonam Kapoor when she made a debut in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Sawaariya’, in which Salman made a guest appearance. The list is long starting from Bilal Amrohi, grandson of late filmmaker Kamal Amrohi, who too was mentored by Salman as debuted in ‘O Teri’. The buzz made rounds that Salman would be promoting youngsters like Raza Murad’s son Ali Murad, Danny Denzongpa’s son Rinzing Denzongpa and late Vijay Anand’s son Vaibhav Anand.

Filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashyap have been well known for launching new talents regarddless of their backgrounds and surname baggage. Salman has believed in mentoring newcomers, largely dominated by filmi-background. This is a phenomenon that can be conveniently equated with the quota system that offers seats to a section of the society based on the caste. The seats in Bollywood are clearly booked for big filmi surnames.