Bollywood is often accused of essentially a family-based fraternity where connections matter the most. But when no new star emerges even after dime-a-dozen talent hunts, it is time to sit back and introspect.

Every other day new talent hunt show winners are announced but very few are heard thereafter. Last week, Aditi Sharma and Sarwar Ahuja, who won Zee TV's talent show "Zee Cinestars Ki Khoj", got a rare chance to star in "Khanna & Iyer".

The quality of the two star wannabes notwithstanding, they did not even have a fighting chance given the poor script and nearly no publicity.

"Khanna & Iyer" had Mukta Arts - a production house known for qualitative promotion - as one of its producers. Yet the two actors were launched without the customary hype and hoopla. Though Zee partnered with Mukta Arts on this film, its promotion was extremely low-key and the quality of promos was not up-to-the-mark either.

"Say Salaam India", which also released last week, features a number of new faces but its distributors - Adlabs - did not invest much in publicity of the film. Though the unfortunate ouster of Team India from the cricket World Cup had a bigger role in the cricket-based film going largely unnoticed.

Though India produces the highest number of films in the world annually, the dependence of the entire filmdom on half-a-dozen saleable stars and even a lesser number of production houses is bad economics.

The entire Hindi film fraternity can be broadly divided into camps.

Yash Raj Films is clearly the industry's number one banner. They will be working with all the top actors from Shah Rukh Khan to Saif Ali Khan to the Bachchans (Amitabh and Abhishek) to Madhuri Dixit to Preity Zinta to Rani Mukerji.

Then there is the Karan Johar camp, whose Dharma Productions shares its pool of stars and clout with Yash Raj. Next prestigious film group is the Rakesh Roshan camp, which is the most closely-knit family affair.

The new players who are coming in on the clout of money are business tycoon Anil Ambani-backed Adlabs and Ronnie Screwvala's UTV, who produced the hit film "Rang De Basanti".

Adlabs has tried tying up with stars like Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar to multi-million-rupee deals while there is talk that UTV has got director Rakeysh Mehra into a four-film Rs.2.8 billion deal. At least for now, the big moneybags do not seem too keen on launching new faces.

Even the mavericks like Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Ram Gopal Varma have their own band of favourites. The Bhatts (Mukesh and Mahesh) also work in silos making their kind of movies with their kind of actors.

Even the influx of corporate money has not made the path less arduous for new comers, especially males, with no connections in Bollywood. In the 1980s, the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) used to be a good source of acting talent. The acting course was resumed at the FTII two years ago, but the graduates are not making any news.

Luck, however, has favoured some female actors like Ayesha Takia and Kangana Ranaut. While the latter was discovered when the filmmaker was on a lookout for a fresh lead to cast opposite a star kid he was launching, the former got lucky when she ran into a filmmaker at a coffee shop.

But in the Hindi film industry there is only so much a female actor can achieve. Take Kareena Kapoor for instance. She just bagged prestigious awards for her acting prowess but is jobless because she has fallen out of favour with nearly all Bollywood camps. Clearly, for the talent pool to grow big banners need to launch films with newcomers.

Star wannabes with Bollywood family connections are assured of at least a good launch. Where they go after that will depend on which camp they are able to align with. The star kids waiting in the wings are Neil Mukesh, son of Nitin Mukesh and grandson of legendary singer Mukesh, who will make his debut in "Johnny Gaddar".

Soniya Mehra, daughter of late actor Vinod Mehra, will bow in Bollywood with Anant Mahadevan's "Victoria No 203" remake. Anil Kapoor's daughter Sonam will debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Saawariya". She stars opposite Ranbir, son of yesteryears hit actors Rishi and Neetu Kapoor.

Mithun Chakraborty's son Mimoh's film is also ready for release but given the fact that Mithun did not belong to any Bollywood camp there is no telling how long the film will take before it has enough financial backing to be launched.

Some Bollywood wannabes without connections to the film fraternity have come up with the shock therapy way to grab attention. Talented Mallika Sherawat, who has now landed a prestigious Hollywood film, has perfected the art. Others are hoping to shine too.

Revealing posters of female debutantes in films like "Waqt" and "Mumbai Express" suggest we are in for more shock and awe assaults by star wannabes.