GIRLS WHO REFUSED TO GROW OLD

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By Team Bollyy
New Update
GIRLS WHO REFUSED TO GROW OLD

-Ali Peter John

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I don't believe in age being the deciding factor for actresses to play the romantic leads or even strong female characters. But I have lived with this industry through times when girls were no longer called or supposed to be“girls"once they crossed thirty or got married or both. Actresses like Meena Kumari, Nutan, Nargis, Nanda and even the great beauty, Madhubala had to almost necessarily change to playing more mature roles like the sister, the mother and even aunts and when it came to the worst even play mothers and mothers-in-law to men who were playing their college-going lovers while the actresses were of the same age....

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But, the times have changed and today we have some of the top leading ladies who continue to play the beloved and the running round the world girls of heroes who are in their fifties (look at all the Khans, the Kumar, the Kapoor,the Devgn and to go to the extreme a Rajnikanth and a Kamal Haasan in the South who are in their sixties and are romancing girls who are less than half their age.

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To think of it and if we look around, the“girls"who are still holding on to their image of the glamour girls madly in love with their dashing young heroes who are in their fifties or at their youngest are in their late forties. The“girls"who have changed the game and can and are still playing the heroines and fighting for the same position and the price of their heroes deserve all the plaudits for changing the face of the heroine of Hindi films....

I was surprised to see Tabu who I had seen as Baby Tabassum in Dev Anand's“Hum Naujawan"and that was when I was a young man and Dev Anand was forever the young man till age showed him how cruel it could be and allowed death to take him away when he was asleep. Tabu who had started playing the heroine in Boney Kapoor's “Prem"and had matured as an actress with Gulzar's“Maachis"was still playing the leading lady in“De De Pyar De"with the same Ajay Devgn who was her hero in some early and bad films, the best among them being“Haqeeqat"which had made the jury of the“Screen"awards nominate the film in nine different categories. Tabu is, believe it or not, forty-seven and it must go entirely to her credit that she is still finding roles that younger girls would die to play.

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She was crowned Miss World in 1995 and was soon attracted to films. She has had her ups and downs, but she is still being considered for glamorous and sexy, daring, young leading ladies like she was last seen in“Ae Dil Hai Mushkil"in which she shocked the Indian orthodox audiences when she did some daring sexy and sensuous scenes with Ranbir Kapoor who was only a few years younger than her and she is still wanted in spite of having another disadvantage of being married to Abhishek Bachchan and being the mother of Aaradhaya. She is only forty-five, an age when some of her seniors were happy to find roles of the mother of the hero.

Ranbir kapoor Biography

The credit for making Katrina Kaif a leading lady largely goes to Salman Khan and that was at a time when she was still very young. She is thirty-seven now and is still the heroine of Salman who is in his early fifties and if their latest teaming together in“Bharat"is a hit as it is expected to be, Salman will naturally grow into a bigger Khan, but Katrina too will find a new lease of life and may continue till she is fifty or God-willing even more....

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Priyanka Chopra was another beauty queen who was drawn to films and was not taken seriously as an actress who would last long. But, Priyanka has proved all of them wrong and is still among the leading ladies who was last considered for“Bharat"which she couldn't do because of date problems. She is also married to Nick Jonas who is officially several years younger than her. Priyanka at her age is an international star and is playing roles that are played by such international stars, which involves a number of revealing scenes which she has grown into an expert at doing. Her marriage was an international affair, which some of the most beautiful and even talented actresses from India cannot boast of.

Priyanka Chopra

Kareena Kapoor's sister was made a victim of the traditional rules and had to either quit for some years or give up for good just when she had crossed thirty. Her marriage is on the rocks and she is desperately trying to make a comeback, but the game is not being kind to her. On the other hand, her younger sister, Kareena Kapoor Khan is still going great guns at thirty-eight and is still showing signs (her body and her makeup) to show that she is still a desirable woman.

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The most striking case is the one of Deepika Padukone. She has done in ten years what very few Indian actresses have. She has played a wide variety of roles. She is the highest paid actress. She has appeared on international magazine covers and had one of the most star-lit marriages with her co-star Ranveer Singh in one of the most lake side palaces of Italy. She's back in a big way and she has started her new fightback when she is only thirty-four.

Deepika Reveals Why She Didn't Get Into Live-In With Ranveer Singh

 

If there is one actress who has been lucky in having age in her side ever since she came to films, it is Kangana Ranaut. She has had her share of controversies. She has been the first actress to raise her voice against the dynasty rule privailing in the industry down the years and she is also the first actress to demand that actresses be paid on par with their male stars. She has also proved that she can sell on her own with films like“Mankarnika"and will be taking on the system even in her future films like“Mental Hai Kya",“Panga"and the biopic on the Tamil actress turned powerful politician, J. Jayalalitha. She is fighting an entire industry on her own terms and conditions at the age of thirty-two.

kangana ranaut manikarnika the queen of jhansi

The other“girls"who have crossed the forbidden line of thirty are Anushka Sharma, Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Shraddha Kapoor, Shruti Hassan and Parineeti Chopra, the cousin of Priyanka and in another two years we may see Alia Bhatt joining this group whose future is suspect.

publive-image Anushka Sharma

There are the well-known names that have missed the chance of playing the“girls"and have had to be satisfied with author-backed roles and there are some who have missed out on all their best chances to prove their talent because of their growing age. Among them are Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty who have to be satisfied with making guest appearances or item numbers or take part in the growing number of reality shows.... And the number of genuinely young girls keeps growing even as the heroes who have already made it big are sitting smug and satisfied getting the roles of their choice and getting the price they feel they deserve and get because there is the strange phenomenon of there being only a handful of successful actors and a crowd of girls waiting to find their opportunities and build on them.

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One Kangana Ranaut speaking out against the“rules"made for the male stars and a set of other“rules"made to literally mark out women as a lower species is not going to solve the problem and neither can people like me. This is a problem that needs to be given all the importance and a solution to be found.

BUT WHO WILL PICK UP THIS CAUSE AND MAKE IT AN ISSUE WITHOUT ANY FEAR OF LOSING OUT BECAUSE OF SOME AGE OLD RULES? THAT IS THE BIG QUESTION.

 

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