When age is a barrier

Anyone who has watched the iconic ‘Sex and the City’ series would find it extremely hard not to admire the spirited Samantha Jones.

Played by Kim Cattrall, Samantha is one lady who proves that age is just a number as she gives the younger girls a run for their money with her daredevil acts and fashion sense. But while all this made for an enjoyable watch, the truth remains that as the years catch up with them, more and more female actors are relegated to the sidelines, irrespective of their talent and experience.

Says Sumalatha Ambarish, “I wouldn’t blame the industry for this trend. It is the mindset of the audience that has to change. Once a heroine is married and has children, the audience is just not ready to accept her in lead roles. And such roles don’t just have to be about romance or singing and dancing around trees. It is the substance and prominence that matter; something that takes a hit for senior women actors.”

Pointing out how even Hollywood is not free from this bias, Sumalatha adds, “We have the likes of Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton who can carry off a movie on their shoulders but the work they get is still less compared to their male counterparts. So while Tom Cruise can still play an action hero at 50, you don’t see a 50-year-old heroine doing that or being given a chance to do that.”

Dinesh Baboo agrees about how the global film industry suffers from this selective age bias against women. “The entertainment industry as such is ruled by heroes,” he says. “Very rarely do we get to see a heroine-oriented script and the chances of the lead being played by a senior heroine are even lesser. Even when I write stories that require a woman to play the lead, the distributors and producers want me to change it to a male-oriented story, no matter the age of the hero.”

Going on to add how the audience themselves have no qualms about accepting Rajnikanth, Mammooty or Shah Rukh Khan playing the part of a much younger character, Dinesh adds that a lot of it also has to do with the perceived screen age of women. “For example, Meena started acting in movies at a very young age but because she was paired with the likes of Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth, the viewers automatically increased her age. So when she acted with younger heroes, the pairing was called ‘awkward’,” he explains.

Urvashi Verma, a film enthusiast, feels the reluctance to accept the ‘not-in-their-twenties’ ladies has caused a huge loss to the Indian film industry. “Nowadays, the criteria for selecting heroines seems to be how well they can pull off dizzying dance moves or wear revealing clothes. Quality seems to have taken a beating in most of the movies being churned out these days. And the best that we, as audiences, are willing to give senior women actors is to set them up in the judging panel in reality shows or beauty pageants and applaud their experience there.”

But there is a little light at the end of the tunnel, feels Sumalatha, and the situation seems to be changing, slowly but steadily.

“When I turned 40, I was being offered roles of much older characters. But it is heartening to see Aishwarya Rai Bachchan portraying a glamorous avatar or Kajol making a comeback in a lead role after a gap of many years. But it will take a lot more effort and a lot more time for this to change though,” says the yesteryear diva.

Asked about which of the older leading ladies she would like to see on screen once again and Sumalatha answers, “Sridevi, definitely! She impressed everyone with her performance in ‘English Vinglish’ but we haven’t seen much of her after that. And there are so many others; so many talented, brilliant performers that I would love to see back on the big screen once again.”