The age difference between male and female co-stars in Bollywood movies is something that has been there for ages. However, after actors like Shefali Shah and Divya Dutta spoke about being typecast to a specific role after a certain age, it has brought this problem to the spotlight.
After ‘Atrangi Re’, it’s Akshay Kumar’s latest release ‘Bachchhan Pandey’ that has done the same old blunder of making a 54-year-old actor romance actresses decades younger than him.
In the gangster comedy, 36-year-old Jacqueline Fernandez plays the role of Sophie, the girlfriend of Kumar’s character Bachchhan Paandey. But as the writers wanted, they didn’t make it till the end and then years later Bachchhan is infatuated by Myra, played by Kriti Sanon, who is 31 years of age. You’re noticing the age gap here, right?
The love angle between Kumar and Kriti’s character came across as abrupt probably because we know about the drastic age gaps between the two actors and that hindered us from soaking in their romance.
Not just these two females, another actress seemed a misfit in the movie and she is 57-year-old Seema Biswas who plays Akshay Kumar’s mother. Clearly, in Bollywood, women who cross a certain age are restricted to roles like these, but men seem to get younger with time.
What’s more disturbing is that the classic actress wasn’t given enough screen time with noteworthy dialogues owing to the fact that her performances in movies like ‘Bandit Queen’, ‘Vivah’ were phenomenal.
Also, Bollywood does have actresses like Suhasini Mulay, Dimple Kapadia, Sharmila Tagore among others who could have also played the role of Kumar’s mom in the movie.
Be it his fitness or looks, Akshay Kumar has also earlier been cast opposite actresses who were 15-20 years younger than him in movies like ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Special 26’, ‘Housefull 2’, ‘Patiala House’, among others.
Even though this kind of faulty casting is wrong on so many levels, actors like Kangana Ranaut have defended the significant age gap between co-actors saying that it suits the story’s narrative.
Clearly, sexism and ageism is plaguing Bollywood for ages. What do you think about this matter? Let us know.