'The arts cannot have meritocracy because you can’t measure it'

Gulshan Devaiah, who was recently seen in the ‘Prime Video’ series ‘Dahaad’, spoke about nepotism in the film industry and pointed out that acting cannot be measured by merit, so the idea that people should be awarded roles on the basis of their merit is flawed.

“People expect meritocracy. The arts cannot have meritocracy because you can’t measure it,” Gulshan told a famed entertainment news agency.

Gulshan said that mathematics, race and weightlifting are all quantifiable because there is a unit to measure them, but such is not the case with performing arts.

“A performance or someone’s talent is not quantifiable. You can have an educated opinion at best, but it’s still a subjective opinion. How can you expect merit? It is about majority consensus. You want majority consensus, that’s the game,” he said, adding, “You want them to like you because that might lead to an opportunity.”

Gulshan said that one might feel that Rajkummar Rao is a better actor than him and someone else might feel that he is the better one and ‘they are both right and they are both wrong’.

The ‘Badhaai Do’ star said that the only aspect that can be measured is the collection of a film, but ‘that’s such a fraud metric because that doesn’t apply to every actor; that only applies to the marquee actors’.

The actor added that in the last few years, many successful actors in powerful positions have come out and spoken about nepotism, but Gulshan believed that they were doing this to serve their own purpose.

“There are some who are in powerful positions who have jumped in because everyone is speaking about nepotism. They are doing it for themselves. They are not sincere about this,” he said.