Like any other film industry, Sandalwood has never been hesitant of their sons and daughters stepping into their parents' shoes. Along the lines, we have Shivarajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar following the example of their father Dr Rajkumar.
Likewise, we have Darshan whose father, Thoogudeepa Srinivas was a well-known actor in Kannada cinema. Prajwal Devaraj and Guru too are not far behind. Actor Ravichandran is also training both his sons Manoranjan and Vikram to be like him.
We have also witnessed the entry of actresses into the glam world. Pramila Joshai's daughter Meghana Sundaraj is more than happy to be in the industry and is now getting popular in Kannada and Malayalam. Soundarya, Jayamala's daughter, recently made a grand debut opposite Upendra in God Father.
But there are star kids who never really wanted to enter the world of tinsel town and have chosen different careers. It is a well-known fact that the Rajkumar family will never allow their women to get into cinema.
Today, Shivarajkumar’s daughter, Nirupama has become a doctor. Coming from the family of actors and actresses, Vijayalakshmi's three beautiful daughters, are yet to see light in tinsel town.
What is taking time for their mother and father Jai Jagadish to launch their young daughters? "Well, film is a short term career. We feel that they should focus on academics as of now.
As youngsters, they have to understand the success and failure of cinema for which they have to prepare themselves. If they are successful, they can go ahead or if they fall back, they can depend on their education as it will take them places. With entertainment in their blood, they are excellent dancers and quite talented too. Right now, my elder daughter is getting into law and modelling, the second one wants to get into business management and the third one wants to be an engineer. They are ready to take up acting only during holidays but they will definitely not make this as their permanent career," says Vijayalakshmi.
Though senior actor Ananth Nag and his wife Gayathri established themselves as good artistes in Sandalwood and Hindi cinema, their daughter, Aditi chose to do an MBA in Finance.
The same is the case with director Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's daughters Sihi and Kanasu who have chosen different routes.
Though Ramesh Aravind loves everything about cinema, his daughter Niharika and son Arjun do not consider cinema as their passion.
Says Ramesh: "In the initial days, I used to see Niharika dancing to the tunes of Bollywood music. As she grew up, her thoughts changed. Today, I see her glued to Friends, The Big Bang Theory and other American television series. It was surprising when I saw her watching news for the first time. So I really don't know what she wants to become. "
Ramesh said that his daugther is studying for Electronics Engineering. "My son Arjun was never interested in becoming an actor. He is always playing video games. He wants to be a game designer and his ambition is to design video games," explains Ramesh Aravind, who felt that unless and until they have a passion for film, only then one can get into it whole-heartedly.