Last year, when Ashutosh Gowarikar cast newcomer Gayatri Joshi opposite the mighty Shah Rukh Khan in "Swades", everyone thought the director had lost his marbles.

But Gowarikar had the faith.

Now another model, Vidya Balan, has made her debut alongside two big stars, Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan, in Pradeep Sarkar's "Parineeta". Will she be a success?

Says a very prominent filmmaker who's about to launch a spectacular film with two newcomers: "Why not? If we continue to believe only stars can deliver the goods, we will never have a new breed of talent to choose from. The industry needs at least 20 more boys and girls."

Unlike Vidya and Randeep Hooda, who debuted in Ram Gopal Varma's "D", Sammir Dattani's debut in "Uuf Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai..!" went unnoticed along with the film.

Sammir, like many others, is now considering his next release - the Anubhav Sinha directed "Pal Tham Gaya" - as his real launch pad, a la "Murder" and Mallika Sherawat.

While the audience will have to wait until August to rediscover Sammir, Sinha has another newcomer, Pakistani cricketer Jawed Sheikh, lined up for a debut in his multi-starrer "Dus".

Sinha says he signed Jawed because he suited the villain's role in the prickly plot.

However, there's a sense of despair in the film industry about the lack of new acting talent.

"Either we don't have the talent, or else we don't have the will to discover that talent," says Anant Mahadevan who introduced Soha Ali Khan in last year's romantic comedy "Dil Maange More".

"It's very important for the industry to wake up to the need for new talent. I worked with Madhavan on TV, long before he became a superstar in Tamil cinema. Now I'm working with Sammir Dattani, who's just one film old. Agreed, stars are irreplaceable, but they can't go on forever. Somewhere down the line we've to discover new talent, and nurture and value it," says Mahadevan.

Few filmmakers endorse this view. Most approach newcomers only as the last resort.

"Every filmmaker claims to hate the star system, but loves to sign stars any way," laughs Hansal Mehta, who introduced Aamir Ali and Payal Rohatgi in his sex comedy "Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai".

Pooja Bhatt, whose "Paap" delivered Udita Goswami to the film industry, is all set to introduce Onjolee Sharma in her next directorial venture "Holiday".

Unfortunately, most of the new talent in Bollywood is of a here-today-gone-tomorrow variety. Besides, much of it is coming from within the film industry - star sons, daughters, cousins, relatives et al.

Filmmakers Harman Baweja and Keshu Ramsay, for instance, are all set to introduce their offspring in tailor-made products.

So what happens to talent from outside? "Well, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham were 'outsiders'. Who knows, Sammir Dattani could be the next 'outsider' to make it big," muses Mahadevan.