So we were about to type up a firey tirade against the Indian film industry for its rampant ageism as it forced aging stars with increasingly younger actresses (it almost never happens the other away around!) - especially whilte looking at Sridevi's long film career and the staggering age-gap between her elderly costars. Then we saw this Sridevi quote and we've.. shut our traps.
Sridevi, "I had been fortunate that the actors whose films, I used to see with my parents - like Rajesh Khanna sir, Jeetendra sir, Akkini Nageshwara sir , N.T.Rama Rao sir and Sivaji Ganesan sir - I got opportunity to act with them. They were simply great in maintaining their personas and getting into their roles easily.All of them had really great career. I feel happy about having worked with legends."
Well, if she's fine with it. So are we.
Ummm okay but that is her opinion and she is entitled to it. We are also entitled to our opinion even if it clashes with hers. The truth is while she was okay with being cast with older heroes it was because she was concerned with learning from them and getting commercially recognized. That's her prerogative. The truth is there definitely is a double standard in the industry where the hero's career outlives the actress by more than 20 years. There's also injustice that a 34 year old Shefali Shah gets cast as the mother of 40 year old Akshay Kumar who also closer to 50 romances 24 and 25 year old actresses like Radhika Apte and Bhoomi Phednekar but Tabu, even though 6 years younger than Salman, gets cast as his bhabhi n Ajay Devgan romances Sonakshi Sinha in the same movie as Juhi Chaska plays his bhabhi. Waheeda Rehman too has played both wife and mother of Amitabh Bachchan. So we have enough reason to stick with our opinions even if they are substantially different.
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