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The unfortunate demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has sparked an ongoing debate in Bollywood regarding nepotism, favouritism, and all the ways in which the industry is far from welcoming newcomers.

Taking to social media, actor Abhay Deol is speaking up about the prejudice he faced while simultaneously calling out award shows.

In a post on Instagram, the actor referred to his 2012 film Shanghai and how it dealt with systemic corruption in politics front and center.

"Extremely relevant today. Looks like these days one could make a film about the corrupt practices of Bollywood!" he said.

"By the way, not sure if the current outrage will give rise to an independent Hindi film and music industry, without the unoriginal tag of “Bollywood”, but it sure feels good to hear loud voices from within the industry, risking their careers for the bigger “picture” (pun intended)"

Previously, Abhay spoke up against the discrimination he faced during the shooting of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

According to Deol, despite being one of the leads of an ensemble cast, his nomination at award functions was demoted to just a "supporting" one against Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan; implying that the story was a love story rather than a journey of three friends on a Euro trip.

"I would like to mention that almost all the award functions demoted me and Farhan from main leads, and nominated us as 'supporting actors'. Hrithik and Katrina were nominated as 'actors in a leading role'”.

So by the industry’s own logic, this was a film about a man and a woman falling in love, with the man supported by his friends for whatever decisions he takes."

"There are many covert and overt ways in which people in the industry lobby against you. In this case it was shamelessly overt. I ofcourse, boycotted the awards but Farhan was ok with it #familyfareawards," he ended.

Deol was last seen in the Netflix original Chopsticks.