“Privilege and a name can really only get you so far.” Do you agree with Zuni Chopra that even privileged kids have their own share of hardships?
Thanks to INKtalks for the footage!
Thanks to INKtalks for the footage!
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CreativityTranscript
00:00She's daughter of Anupama Chopra
00:02and filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
00:04When everyone knows who your parents are,
00:06what can you do to be bigger than your last name?
00:08We welcome Zuni Chopra, she's a young author,
00:14she's just 17, and her latest book has just come out,
00:18and she's daughter of Anupama Chopra
00:20and filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
00:22That's how they always start my interviews.
00:25It bothered me at 15.
00:27Why were they always mentioning who my parents were?
00:29Why were their names repeated more often than mine?
00:33I had just published my first novel
00:35at the Jaipur Literature Festival,
00:37and I was overcoming some major self-confidence issues.
00:40But I was beginning to see that it still wasn't enough
00:43to shake off what people saw.
00:45Snobbish, privileged, entitled, probably loves chiclet,
00:51doesn't really read those authors she was talking about,
00:53just wants to sound clever.
00:56And I did realize then
00:58that maybe there was some truth to what they said,
01:01or maybe there wasn't.
01:02I'd never really thought about it very hard.
01:06And the recurring phrase was,
01:08you know, only go where she is
01:10because her parents got there first.
01:12Now, the privileged bit is kind of a hard one to escape.
01:16When everyone knows who your parents are,
01:18what can you do to be bigger than your last name?
01:21What mountain can you conquer
01:22to match the Everest of those who came before you?
01:25How do you deal with the pressure of living up to that?
01:27How do you deal with no one thinking
01:29that anything you did was actually because of you?
01:31And when everything's already done,
01:33every fight already won,
01:35no real need to do anything but sort of contently lays on,
01:38well then, where does this passion even come from?
01:42It so often phases me.
01:44We'll be at the dinner table,
01:45and my dad will just casually show us the rough trailer
01:48for a new-length feature film,
01:50or my mom will just mention
01:51that she's now considered an influencer
01:53by some major company, I don't even know what that means.
01:55And sometimes I'm about to reply with a story of my own.
01:58Maybe I did well on a test,
01:59or I answered a tricky question right in math
02:02about vectors or something,
02:03and I just kind of think better of it in the moment.
02:07And it is a little scary, I'm not going to lie.
02:11I published my first novel at nine,
02:13and then another at 11, and another at 11,
02:16and it was kind of, like I said,
02:17it was the story of it that kept me going.
02:20I think my parents definitely knew before I did,
02:24but they never filled my heads with praise,
02:27and they never boasted to other aunties at dinner parties
02:30about what a bright future I had ahead of me,
02:32until I actually started becoming
02:34a little bit worthy of their praise.
02:36And I found an art that I loved.
02:39I found something I loved to do,
02:41and I fought to conquer my own mountains,
02:43not really for the view at the peak,
02:46but rather for the joy of the climb.
02:48And it was that determination and that hard work
02:51that really stayed with me.
02:53And, you know, it's this that's kind of brought me this far.
02:57And I think I've been living this life,
03:00this crazy, unpredictable, spotlighted life
03:04for 17 years now.
03:05And I think the most important thing
03:07that I've learned is this.
03:09You're you.
03:10It doesn't really matter who your parents are,
03:12where you've come from, or who tried to define you,
03:14or really anything.
03:17And finally, in the end, I know that everyone thinks that,
03:20oh, you know, this one is this one's kid,
03:22and that one is that one's kid.
03:23But in the end, that's only going to get you so far.
03:26Privilege and a name can really only get you so far.
03:29The other half of it, it's passion,
03:31and it's grit, and it's hard work.
03:33And it's waking up at six in the morning
03:35on a summer vacation,
03:36even though everyone else is out at the pool,
03:38and you really don't want to be here,
03:39but you really have to write
03:40because there's a novel you want to make.
03:42And there's something you want to do,
03:43and there's so many mountains that you have yet to climb.
03:45And it's that that really takes you far in the end.
03:49Maybe someday, if I work hard enough,
03:51they'll be Zuni's parents, and I'll have stolen the show.