No More (Birth) Date Problems in Bollywood
The sun is setting on Bollywood Queen Bees. But younger actors are there to help.
Age is no bar for Bollywood actresses, it seems. The queen bees of tinselville have been signing movies opposite much younger actors with panache. Of course, Vidya Balan (29) seems to have kicked off a trend by sharing screen space with Shahid Kapur (27) in Aziz Mirza’s Kismat Konnection. And soon after we saw Bipasha Basu (29) romancing young lad Ranbir Kapoor (26) in the film Bachna Ae Haseeno. But there are many more following this example. To begin with, Rani Mukerji, (29) is working with Shahid Kapur in Yash Raj Films’ yet untitled project on cricket. Directed by debutant Anurag Singh, the film also stars Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra. Similarly, Konkana Sen Sharma, now 29, is going to team up with 26-year-old Ranbir Kapoor in Karan Johar’s production, Wake Up Sid!. “The casting is unusual and perfect for the narrative,” writes Johar on his blog. Filmmaker Kabir Khan feels that stereotypes should be broken. “If a 60-plus Amitabh Bachchan can romance an 18-year-old girl in a movie, then a slightly older actor too has the right to romance a hero much younger than her,” he said. Film experts believe that an unusual pairing catches the audience’s eye and immediately makes headlines which, in turn, gives the film unparalleled publicity. “Though a script’s demand continues to be important, casting an older actress and a young actor becomes the talk of the town, which is always welcome by any filmkare,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh. Interestingly, not every actress is open to starring opposite young co-stars. For instance, Bipasha, 29, wasn’t keen on working with young Neil Nitin Mukesh (26), in debutant director Jehangir Surti’s Freeze because she had already signed Siddharth Anand’s Bachna Ae Haseeno opposite Ranbir. It was her boyfriend John Abraham who managed to convince her. “She did have her doubts when she read the script. But then John, who happens to be a friend of director Jehangir Surti, happened to go through the script. He convinced Bipasha to go for it,” said Neil. Obviously, Vidya, Koko, Rani and Bips are not the first ones to have worked with younger co-actors. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 35, has romanced her husband, Abhishek, 32, in several films including Sarkar Raj. The same goes for Hrithik Roshan, who was paired with Aish in Jodhaa Akbar and Dhoom 2. 36-year-old Tabu, too worked with debutant Kunal Kapoor, who was in his 20s when the film Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities was filmed. Likewise, Ameesha, 29, had worked with Zayed Khan, 27 in Vaada three years back. “From Madhuri Dixit to Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan — none of them look older than their heroes on screen. And what’s wrong if they are cast opposite younger heroes?” said filmmaker Kunal Kohli recently. If you unspool the film reels, you’d find Madhuri Dixit being serenaded by Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna, Sridevi being wooed by Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar and Rekha being courted by Akshay Kumar. All the divas were older than their reel lovers. And some of these films even created BO records! Are the scripts becoming mature? Is the audience growing up? “No I don’t think so. Sometimes, the script of the movie requires the heroine to be older than her male counterpart. I believe that it’s the way she looks and not her age that counts. The actors should be able to pull their characters in the right direction. That’s all that matters in the end. If a 60-plus Amitabh Bachchan can romance an 18-year-old girl in a movie, then a slightly older actor too has the right to romance with her hero, who is much younger than her in years. Stereotypes should be broken,” says film-maker Kabir Khan. Two decades ago, the likes of Waheeda Rehman and Nutan played the romantic lead opposite Amitabh Bachchan, and Asha Parekh got courted by Rajesh Khanna and Feroz Khan. Most young actors have no problems working with ‘older’ heroines if the script justifies it or the lead pair look good together. “The trend of casting older heroines opposite younger heroes exists right from the advent of talkies in India,” says Ashmit Patel. He says, “The bottomline is — it’s the acting skill and not the age of an actor that matters. Well, if the odd pairing spells box office magic filmmakers aren’t complaining.
Tags: Hero , Heroine , Movie , Film , Bollywood , Age , Time , Money , Acting , Trend
