Bigg Boss 14's recent episode saw a huge rift between once-friends Rahul Vaidya and Jaan Kumar Sanu, This led to the former nominating the latter and siting 'nepotism' as the reason for the same. For those who don't know, Jaan is singer Kumar Sanu's son. Rahul's comment comes in the times when the nepotism debate is raging on in Bollywood after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14, 2020. Eversince their big blow out, Rahul has been seen taunting Jaan over his father' name and all of this is not sitting well with Jaan’s mother Rita Bhattacharya. Bigg Boss 14 Preview: Rahul Vaidya Nominates Jaan Kumar Sanu and Declares He Hates 'Nepotism', Kavita Kaushik Clashes With Shardul Pandit and Pavitra Punia on Her First Day (Watch Video).

“I am very hurt that on national television in front of so many people, Rahul Vaidya so easily said that Jaan is a 'nepo kid'. He discouraged his hard work that he has done to reach here. I am sure he knows about Jaan’s hard work. If Rahul Vaidya seriously hated nepotism he could have mentioned about it on the first day itself that he doesn’t want to be a part of the show. He has been on the show with Jaan for three weeks now, they became friends, they spent good time with each other and suddenly after a small friction he has realised that Jaan is a nepo kid. I mean it is very insulting and disturbing to hear this,” said Rita in a chat with ETimes TV.

She went on to add that Rahul is simply trying to use the phrase to be in the limelight outside the show as the subject is a sensitive matter now. She said, " “I am shocked that Rahul is using Kumar Sanu’s name who is a legendary singer of our country. He is using his name for something which is so petty and nasty. In these three weeks when he did not get any reason against Jaan he came up with this. I haven’t seen a single friend of Rahul Vaidya inside the house and I haven’t seen a single enemy of Jaan inside BB14 in the last three weeks. He could have given any excuse for nominating Jaan like he doesn’t like him, they are not friends, but he didn’t do that. He chose to pick up something which is already in the news in the outside world and he said I hate nepotism."

“It is a very easy word to say but you are making it very difficult for the person you are talking about. Just by using this one word you discredit the hard work the other person has put in,” says Jaan's mother.

Talking about how her children have followed their passion and worked hard to achieve what they have today, Rita continued to reveal, "Why is he talking about nepotism? I have two more sons. One has studied in the US and returned to India and the other studied Graphic multimedia designing from Singapore. He is the head of a company. Jaan is also a graduate from a reputed college in Mumbai and is a trained classical singer. He can sing any type of song. My other two kids could have also become singers, they were also raised in the same family but they chose something else. They did not become singers. Jaan became a singer because singing was his passion, how can Rahul make everything sound so easy."

She further added, “It is in our Indian culture doctors kids become doctors, engineers want their kids to be engineers, but why is it just highlighted in this industry. This is everywhere. Rahul is just trying to make use of the nepotism issue and gain sympathy votes that see I am a victim of nepotism and I am getting tortured. He is much older than Jaan and he has come from a reality show. I expected him to be mature but he has put such a big blame on my son. I am very hurt. I am feeling terrible to see my son in this condition. I am feeling helpless that he has to battle all this as if he has done some crime.”

Talking about starkids and nepotism, Rita went on to reveal, "It is not in the hands of kids which family they want to born into. If there was a choice given to a kid, everyone would choose Ambani or a rich businessman. Rahul loudly said in yesterday’s episode (Mujhe aisa baap chahiye bhi nahi) that he doesn’t want a father like Kumar Sanu. I am sorry to say this. I don’t want to disrespect Rahul’s father but I feel he is really unfortunate that his son is talking in this manner about someone’s dad. I know Jaan will never talk about anyone’s father in a derogatory manner."

Referring to the singing task that took place between Jaan and Rahul a few weeks back, Rita said that Rahul is only insecure and jealous of Jaan's popularity amongst the other housemates. She concluded by aying, "I would like to advise Rahul to not indulge in these cheap tricks and try to gain publicity at the cost of others hard work. I don’t think he has any respect for music. If he really loved music, he would have never done something like this to any other artist."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 27, 2020 06:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).