From Rekha to Priyanka Chopra: Bollywood gals romancing younger heroes sets new trend

Bangalore: Indian movies no longer consider it a taboo for an older actress to romance a younger actor on silver screen. Leading actresses like Katrina Kaif and Aishwarya Rai have acted opposite young actors like Sidharth Malhotra. But still, these few steps forward cannot compare to the massive gaps between leading heroes and heroines.

In an interesting shift, our leading actresses are being paired opposite younger actors too. This feat was a grave taboo even as little as a decade ago, but times are changing ever so slowly.

Here are a few films that showcased this changing trend.

Bipasha Basu with Ranbir Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh
Bong beauty Bipasha starred opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Bachna Ae Haseeno, and with Neil Nitin Mukesh in Aa Dekhen Zara. Both actors are about four years younger than her.

Rekha with Akshay Kumar
Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi saw veteran actor Rekha share a passionate relationship with the then rising star Akshay. According to reports, there was a rumour that Akshay and Rekha allegedly had a short fling. During the shooting of Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, the grapevine insisted that the two actors grew close to each other and the veteran actress was reported to be 'madly in love' with Akshay.

 

Konkona Sen Sharma with Ranbir Kapoor
Ayan Mukerji’s coming-of-age film featured Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma (who is about four years older than him) in Wake Up Sid. The fact that the movie's storyline also had them playing an older woman in love with a young college boy probably worked in their favour.

Priyanka Chopra with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra, who was then 33, appeared with two younger actors – Ranveer and Arjun - in Gunday. Later, Priyanka went on to do the blockbuster period drama Bajirao Mastani with Ranveer.

 

Katrina Kaif with Aditya Roy Kapoor
Katrina starred with Aditya, who is two years younger than her, in Abhishek Kapoor's Fitoor. Katrina and Aditya's hot chemistry was much talked about and appreciated.

 

Other similar examples include Rani Mukerji with Shahid Kapoor in Dil Bole Hadippa, Vidya Balan with Shahid Kapoor and Emran Hashmi in Kismat Konnection and Ghanchakkar respectively

However, before we get too excited about this new trend, let us remember that on the other side not only is the practice rampant, but sometimes the age gaps are quite ludicrous.

 

There was a huge age gap, nearly 20 years, between Prem Ratan Dhan Payo lead pair Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor. Similar differences in age existed between Rajinikanth and Radhika Apte, Deepika Padukone and Sonakshi Sinha.

Perhaps the one that takes the cake is Chiranjeevi (61), who recently acted with Kajal (31), in the Telugu film Khaidi No 150. Not only is Kajal younger than Chiranjeevi’s daughters, but she has also played the lover of Chiranjeevi's son Ram Charan Teja in several movies.

The examples, even extreme ones, seem endless. Sonam Kapoor and Bobby Deol played husband and wife in 2011. Sonam was 25, and Bobby was 44.  In the movie Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, which was released in 2010, Kangna Ranaut was only 23 and Ajay Devgn, who played her lover, was 41.

Asin played Aamir's love interest in the movie Ghajini, which was her Bollywood debut. She was 23 when the film released in 2008. Aamir was 20 years older to her. When Prachi Desai acted beside Sanjay Dutt (53), she was 24. And, Sanjay's eldest daughter Trishala is also 24.

In the movie Heera Panna, Zeenat Aman was 22 and Dev Anand 50. In Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Anushka Sharma was 20 when she debuted with this movie and Shah Rukh Khan, on the other hand, was 43.

 

As the years pass, we have started to accept the fact that dating an older woman is fine and many of our Bollywood actresses have also proved it by marrying younger men, for example, Urmila Matondkar, who is 42, recently got married to 34-year-old Mohsin Akhtar. We, for one, hope the trend continues.