I’m a product of nepotism, knew I’ll not succeed if don’t make a name for myself: Ranbir Kapoor

Terming himself a “product of nepotism”, Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor on Thursday said he was always aware of the perks of being born into a film family but lineage never guarantees success.

Ranbir, part of the fourth generation of the illustrious Kapoor family, said he had to develop an individualistic approach and prove his talent independently to sustain in the industry.

“I’m a product of nepotism and I got it very easy in my life but I always had to work hard because I realised that I come from a family like this and if I don’t have an individualistic approach and if I don’t make a name for myself, I’ll not succeed in the film industry. You guys celebrate a lot of success of my family but there are a lot of failures also, and as much as you learn from the success, you learn from the failure as well,” the 43-year-old actor said.

He was speaking at a session, titled ‘Tribute to legendary filmmaker Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt’, during the ‘Celebrate Cinema 2025’ festival at filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s film institute Whistling Woods.

“Filmmaking is not dictatorship, it’s a marriage of so many people and artists coming together, and believing in something, and believing in inspiring people,” the actor said, recalling the words of his great-grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor.

“What he said moved deeply — ‘Kala desh ki seva mein’. So whatever you can do, do it to inspire the next generation... If you can do that then there’s nothing greater than that,” the actor added.

He recounted his experiences of working as an assistant director on filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2005 movie ‘Black’.

“When I saw him (Bhansali) write scenes and how the actors perform, I was noticing, studying them. I was not trying to ape them but I would tell myself, ‘How would I approach the scene?’. But once you become a working professional you start acting in movies, every film is different and there’s no fixed method. As actors you’ve to be malleable. You can’t say, ‘I work only in this way’. Every filmmaker has a different way of telling a story and filmmaking is a director’s medium,” he added.

The actor has learnt to not take himself too seriously.

“We are not selling the world; we are providing entertainment. So do it to the best of your ability and don’t get stuck with one method,” he advised the budding actors and directors in the auditorium.

Ranbir, who has been in the movie industry for 18 years, expressed his desire to nurture young talent.

“It is something that I would love to do, not only to impart knowledge but also because I’m in a phase in my career where I can feel saturated, and I’ll get so much energy from the newer people,” he said.

At the event, Ghai announced two scholarships in the name of Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt for the students of his institute.