Age no bar for T’wood casting

‘Vikrama Simha’ –Rajinikanth, 63, and Deepika Padukone, 28 ‘Masala’ – Venkatesh, 53 and Anjali, 27 ‘Policegiri’ – Sanjay Dutt, 54 and Prachi Desai, 25

It is a cliché we’re used to seeing on screen. Be it in Bollywood or Tollywood, actors don’t bat an eyelid when it comes to the wrong casting. A veteran actor with shades to cover his wrinkles, a wig to mask his bald pate and a belt to hold up his paunch, and right next to him is his ‘ladylove,’ a pretty, young actress on the throes of youth. In most cases, the actress would have literally grown up watching his movies.

The latest example is 52-year-old Rajashekar’s under production film, ‘Gaddam Gang’. The actor recently drew flak for posing with the actress of the film, Sheena Shahabadi, 28, who appeared like his daughter next to him. Sheena was replaced in the nth hour after the original choice - Anjali Lavania of ‘Panjaa’ fame - opted out of the film. However, the interesting thing is that this trend isn’t new to the industry and goes back to the 70s and 80s when en masse hero worship was at its zenith.

Says Telugu film historian, Mamidi Harikrishna, “The film industry is male-dominated and we all are part of a patriarchal society. During the time of NTR and ANR, audiences worshipped them and it was that devotion which made them forgo the factor of age and accept them romancing young heroines.”

The heroine’s career

“A heroine has a short career span in the film industry and there is a constant lookout for a new look and young faces. So out went Anjali, Krishna Kumari and the likes, and enter Sridevi, Jayaprada, Jayasudha and a slew of other new generation of actresses,” he adds.

Interestingly Sridevi had played granddaughter to NTR in the film ‘Badi Pantulu’, and a few years later, she was seen serenading him with moves and grooves.

Harikrishna says that the reason for a heroine’s career span being shorter to the hero’s can be mostly attributed to the audiences’ acceptability. “There is a great discrimination between male and female here. A hero is accepted regardless of his age or fitness levels. But unfortunately, the audiences expect the heroines to look fresh and youthful,” explains Harikrishna. Trade analyst Komal Nahta, in an interview to a prominent film magazine: says, "If the audience can accept an older hero, why isn't the same logic applied to heroines as well?”

The heroine’s ‘dream’

At a point of time, actresses were in awe of working with legends like NTR, ANR and later Chiranjeevi. But today, the trend has changed and actresses these days are boldly saying no. Understanding that the pairing looks “unusual”, many renowned heroines are giving a firm rejection to such roles offered to them. There are instances where Anushka, Nithya Menen and Kajal Aggarwal refused films which required them to romance the ageing Superstars of Tollywood.

The spiral

The 70s and 80s saw a great impetus in the combination of the aging hero and the young heroine. However, after NTR’s political entry in 1983 and the emergence of a young brigade of heroes – Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Suman, Venkatesh et al, audience again saw the young heroes opposite young heroines. It is ironical how Sridevi, who romanced ANR in ‘Premabhishekam’ was also seen alongside his son Nagarjuna in films like ‘Aakari Poratam’, ‘Khuda Gawah’ and ‘Govinda Govinda’.

But later, once the young brigade of the 80s and 90s started ageing, the trend came a full circle again. Chiranjeevi started romancing young girls like Trisha and Shriya before bidding adieu to films. Unable to get top heroines on board, Balakrishna had to content with the likes of Sneha Ullal and Radhika Apte who are half his age. Nagarjuna and Venkatesh too went for young girls like Anshu, Shriya, Aarti Aggarwal, Poonam Bajwa and Charmee among others.

We now have another young brigade of actors like Prabhas, NTR, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan, Ram etc. and after a decade or so this trend is going to repeat because they will have begun to age and the audiences’ demands will be the same. So is this like a cycle that repeats itself? Film enthusiasts would rather call it “a spiral” which just keeps continuing. A change probably? “No!” says Harikrishna adding that “until the society’s ideology and point of view doesn’t change, this will remain the same.”