Bollywood actor and producer Dia Mirza, in a recent interview, made a statement about the “bizarre” trend of casting older men opposite younger actresses in films.
The Sanju actress was reportedly asked how older actors still get to play lead while the same is not the case with older women actresses. And she responded with, “I hope that this expression of female actors allows them to play the leading part even when they are older. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that stories are not written for the female older characters as much as the male ones. It is even more unfortunate to see an older man playing younger parts.”
She further added, “The idea of beauty is always associated with youthfulness. I think that is why there is a large interest in consuming younger faces. An aberration to this would be an actress like Neena Gupta ji. She literally has said it out loud more than once, ‘I am an actor. I love my job. Please cast me.’ Thankfully, some interesting filmmakers decided to cast her in lead parts that were defeating her age. But there are a lot of actresses in their middle ages who are struggling and aren’t being cast because no stories are being written for them."
“The industry is male-dominated. Older men like to be cast opposite younger women to extend their own shelf life. It is bizarre that a 50 plus something actor is acting opposite a 19-year-old actress,” she shared.
Dia Mirza was last seen in the film, Thappad.