Mumbai, Jul 19 (IANS): Veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai says the Indian film industry is meritorious as there is open competition between star kids and those from outside the movie world.

"The most beautiful thing about the industry is that it is a meritorious industry. You have merit, you will win -- be it kids of film families or from those from outside. The competition is quite open and in this open competition, sometimes star kids win and sometimes those from outside," Ghai said on the sidelines of a convocation ceremony for the students of his film institute Whistling Woods International.

"Shah Rukh Khan is from outside, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan are from the film families, but Akshay Kumar is from outside. So you'll get many such actors and directors... Like I am from outside, I was not the son of Raj Kapoor or Yash Chopra. When Vinod Khanna came, his father was not from the film industry, he had come from outside," he added.

Bollywood has seen the Kapoor family contributing with their talent through decades, and even Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan and Shahid Kapoor have carried their family's legacy. Now, Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan are the latest joinees who belong to film families.

"Film families have that kind of upbringing. Like how a politician's son becomes a politician or doctor's son a doctor... That is a norm. The positive thing about it is that the child born into a film family starts receiving training from the age of six -- he sees his parents, it comes in the genes and the training takes place at home," Ghai said.