The saga continues: ageing Bollywood actors continue to be in denial

Image by reddiff.com

2022 has not been a great year for Bollywood, with several mediocre films having tanked at the box office and the usual rut of remakes which the audience is steadily getting tired of. Even the music albums which used to be the saving grace of films which were shabbily put together, have seen several remakes and lack of creativity by composers. Add to this mixture the denial of several ageing actors to take on roles that are age-appropriate and broaden their range in terms of acting.

It was a common theme this year to see seasoned actors with much younger female co-stars or taking on roles of characters much younger than their actual age, which didn’t go unnoticed by the audience and film critics. Akshay Kumar, starred alongside Manushi Chhillar, 30 years younger than him in the historical drama Samrat Prithviraj, which failed to collect enough revenue after its release. Responding to the criticism, the actor had said, “That’s because they are jealous. I can work with them. Do I look 55? I don’t understand the problem. They just get jealous and keep on writing it. Some media people will write, and some trolling will happen. Who cares?”

Actress Kajol, who is promoting her recently released film Salaam Venky, an emotional drama where she plays the mother of a 24-year-old terminally ill boy was questioned on the same issue. However, while clarifying that what she was saying is not a fact but her opinion, she came out in defence of her contemporaries and said, “I think the heroes of our film industry, in fact, feel they are in this nut for a reason. And the reason is that the film industry is a business at the end of the day. Whatever you do at the end of the business, every hero has to pull in that much to make that film a hit. It is a huge responsibility on their heads.

“Somebody asked me this question, ‘You have grown as an actor and your contemporaries have not grown as diverse as the roles that you have done’. I think that really has to do with the fact that they are also stuck down the line because of the number game. They are shouldering that responsibility.”

Several actresses from the 90s have accepted and done justice to age-appropriate roles, however, that is not the case for their male counterparts including Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Kajol will next be seen in her upcoming project The Good Wife, which is an Indian adaptation of American courtroom drama of the same name.