Akshay Kumar Thinks He Can Brush Away Age Gap Debate As Jealousy

The latest episode of Koffee With Karan, featuring Akshay Kumar and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, did more than just spill the tea (or coffee beans). It tactfully 'encroached' on topics like Prabhu's life after separating from her ex-husband Naga Chaitanya, dealing with online trolls and the much-debated age gap problem between leading actors in films, especially in Kumar's movies. However, when questioned about playing romantic hero to female leads much younger than him, Kumar said that those who criticise him for this are probably “jealous”.

Kumar said, “That’s because they are jealous. I can work with them. Do I look 55? I don’t understand the problem. They just get jealous and keep on writing it. Some media person will write, and some trolling will happen. Who cares?” The answer is far from diplomacy and downright frustrating because ageism in the Indian film industry has been normalised to the level that it is fodder for jokes.

In Bharat (2019), Sonali Kulkarni, who is nine years younger than Salman Khan, plays the role of his mother. In Waqt: A Race Against Time, Shefali Shah plays Akshay Kumar’s mom, even though she is five years younger. To top it off, Priyanka Chopra, who was 22, plays the female lead. In Shahrukh Khan-starrer Zero (2018), the actor who plays Khan’s mother, Sheeba Chaddha, is seven years younger than him. These are a few contemporary examples of a practice that dates back to the inception of Bollywood: movies unapologetically flaunt gendered age bias.

Shefali Shah Plays Mother To Akshay Kumar in Waqt (Hindustan Times)

Akshay Kumar on age gap debate

Lately, a lot of Kumar's films have underscored the age-gap issues and it gets even more jarring to witness a 55-year-old male actor romancing a 22-year-old female lead in his last film Samrat Prithviraj. This amplifies the ageism and rooted sexism problem of how as an actor grows older, he can romance actresses who are way younger than him. But the moment an actress reaches the age threshold, she's typecast into specific roles that bear minuscule value.

The entire phenomenon can be boiled down to our perceptions of beauty and ageing. The way Bollywood treats female actors reflects the way we condition women in society — we sexualise them at a young age, make them feel their self-worth is solely derived from their physical appearance, and then expect them to conform to rigid societal standards of beauty. Older men, on the other hand, get labelled as silver fox, the bearer of lively salt-and-pepper locks, but to women, we pitch plastic surgery deals, anti-ageing creams, and a billion other fillers to make them appear younger.

So, Mr Kumar, it probably isn't jealousy that we are feeling, but the underlying frustration and annoyance for female actors who are being robbed of good films, and well-suited roles. But who cares, because, in Hindi cinema, age is a number which affects the CV of an actress and not the superstars.

Earlier this year in May, Hollywood actors including Juliet Stevenson, Meera Syal, David Tennant and Zawe Ashton called for better onscreen representation of women older than 45 to fight against the “entrenched” ageism of the entertainment industry. In an open letter signed by more than 100 actors and public figures, the Acting Your Age Campaign (AYAC) called for equal representation in the UK between men and women over 45 and urged immediate action on a “parity pledge”.

Perhaps women in Bollywood too need to join forces and ensure that ageing male superstars learn to act and embrace their age, so that their followers can do the same.

Suggested Reading: When Will Bollywood Learn? 30-Year-Old Disha Patani Cast Opposite John Abraham, 49