Being (an) Outsider...

“Why don’t you North Indians find a job in your state?” Asked me one of the irate employees from my client’s company in Chennai.

 “Boss, I am not a North Indian per se, I am from Maharashtra, which technically falls in the west of India,” I tried to convince him that there are two more directions apart from North and South.

 “Whatever. But then you should settle in Maharashtra and not try to steal the jobs of Tamil guys.”  He was firm on his stand as for him, I was an outsider in Chennai.

The reason for sharing this decade-old incident now is the debate that’s viral over the net, after the disheartening suicide of the charming actor Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR). And it’s more about being an outsider in the film industry fondly known as Bollywood than the problem of depression. The Indian film-goers are not able to accept that the promising star SSR is no more among us. They are extremely enraged over the suicide of SSR and this trend may lead to a big wave like #MeToo leading to the expose of big daddies in Bollywood. Bollywood is always in news and on the mind of movie buffs, so it catches the fascination of everyone. And the grief of SSR’s suicide is evident from the ongoing posts over the world wide web. This might result in the financial loss to some big fishes in Bollywood similar to how Congress lost its foothold after Anna Andolan on the issue of corruption. And an outsider (for Lutyens Delhi) like Narendra Modi was crowned as the PM of our country.

However, not only Bollywood or politics is hit by this syndrome of being treated as an outsider or nepotism to be precisely termed. Every industry including big corporate houses and government offices are the victim of nepotism or playing favorites. If you don’t fall in their line of control then you might be treated as an outsider and chances are that you will be denied opportunities. While working in media, I experienced being treated as an outsider because I was an Engineer who was not speaking the language that was considered as standard for media. So, my mistakes were glorified, whereas the insiders were bestowed with plum projects. It’s like the passenger who enters a Mumbai local train at Andheri station is given a treatment like an outsider till Bandra station. However, after Bandra, he becomes an insider and treats the new passengers like outsiders. The first-generation persons have to face this issue be it in law, journalism, music or film industry.

But being depressed or playing the victim card is the last thing that can help tackle this problem. One has to be fit (mentally) in order to survive in this VUCA (Volatile-Uncertain-Complex-Ambiguous) world. It’s very hard for people to believe that someone can be successful in a highly uncertain field like film industry only due to sheer talent. That’s the reason they try to portray some successful superstar like Shahrukh Khan as an heir of yesteryear’s tragedy King Dilip Kumar. Even the success of a star performer in Corporate can be rumoured to be shaped by some industry bigshot, just to undermine the performance of that particular professional. However, if you have the substance in you, all these rumours will be extinct sooner or later and your critics will not have any options but to accept your worth. The only quality to overcome this phase is having patience which seems to be missing in today’s young generation. You need to wait for the right time to play the right shot, as SSR’s Boss advises in the biopic of M S Dhoni. After all, it’s about the survival of the fittest, irrespective of the field. And you cannot reach that far without your talent and performance. Probably, SSR didn’t realize how successful he was for so many aspiring actors, at that delicate moment when he decided to end his life.

Howsoever depressing the situation might be, but you should never undermine your worth. You can be more worthy than you think of yourself and your worth doesn’t depend on the inability of others to see it. So, even if you feel that you are an outsider who could have done better, had there been a godfather, don’t just give up, because you never know whom you are inspiring.

Stay strong, stay safe!