Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who often speaks about nepotism and other malpractices prevalent in Bollywood, has recently stated that nepotism in Bollywood has flourished largely after 2000. He has stated that before 2000, most of the actors were outsiders and self made people but now their children have taken over and they have closed the doors of opportunities for outsiders.

Vivek told Brut India, "Bollywood used to be different. I think pre-2000, it was a different place because most of the people were outsiders. And then those stars, people who became big stars by 2000, their children then came and then slowly it became a very close-knit kind of a mafia, and they have some problems with outsiders. I don’t know why. And that’s why they are suffering also."

Taking his point further, Vivek said, “Here (in Bollywood) what happened post-2000 is that they closed the doors of this castle for everybody else. I don’t think there was nepotism before 2000, because if you look at the stars, Dharmendra was an outsider, Jitendra was an outsider, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Shatrughan Sinha were outsiders. You name anybody – all the actors, heroes, heroines – Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi – these are all outsiders. They are not coming from film families."

The filmmaker concluded by saying, "But when these people became very successful, their children came, then directors’ children came, then the producers’ children came. I have no problems with that. Absolutely. My problem is when you push incompetence, if the world can see, even you know that this brother cannot even act, or say A for acting or D for direction."