Bollywood actors simply refuse to grow up! Why else would we see a 42-year-old Saif Ali Khan romancing hot babes in their twenties, in his latest film Cocktail? Not only him, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and our yardstick of perfection Aamir Khan too are seen with ladies half their age on-screen.
Courtesy: ibn live
This however, isn’t a new trend, it has infact been the age old formula of Bollywood. Film Maker Mahesh Bhatt told ibn live that ” It is their way of keeping themselves eternally young.
Here we look at aging as a disease unlike the west where stars can be relevant even if they have aged. It is a youth obsessed culture and starring opposite younger heroines also help them to erase their age onscreen.’
In Sapno Ka Saudagar, we saw a 46-year-old Raj Kapoor dancing with then 20-year-old Hema Malini. Rishi Kapoor too had been known to have romanced many younger girls onscreen, including a 18-year-old Divya Bharati in the movie Deewana, when he was 40 plus.
Despite gen-next actors such as Ranbir Kapoor and Imraan Khan being around, today’s 40 plus heros, with their fit bodies and 100 crore movies are in no mood to give way to the newbies and play roles befitting their age.
With Salman Khan all set to romance his ex, Katrina Kaif, who is nineteen years younger to him, in EK Tha Tiger and Shah Rukh Khan, who is 46-year-old to be soon seen with Anushka Sharma (24 years) and Katrina Kaif (27 years) in a Yash Chopra film, it seems that the trend is here to stay.
