Sonakshi Sinha Said She Wouldn’t Star Opposite A 22 Year Old At The Age Of 50. But She Had No Qualms Being Romanced By Salman Khan Inspite Of The Age Gap.

Sonakshi Sinha Said She Wouldn’t Star Opposite A 22 Year Old At The Age Of 50. But She Had No Qualms Being Romanced By Salman Khan Inspite Of The Age Gap.

Keeping the fact that I have always been kind of a Bollywood buff my entire life aside, there is quite a lot I feel that I have come to learn about the tinsel town over the past few years. Of course, the fact that I work as a writer for a digital publication that covers entertainment as much as it does other topics, has helped me in forming my perspective. However, one realisation that has dawned on me in the recent years is that Bollywood and hypocrisy, almost always go hand in hand. Be it about making content that says one thing and then going ahead and doing something that is starkly opposite, the industry is as big on bigotry as it is in words. And the recent actor to remind us of this is the Dabangg 3 actress, Sonakshi Sinha when she talked about how she felt about the age gap between herself and co-actor Salman Khan.

Being released as the third installment of the action-drama series, Dabangg 3 will once again see superstar Salman Khan playing the role of the male protagonist, who is obviously not in his 50s unlike Salman himself, along with co-star Sonakshi Sinha, playing Salman Khan’s love interest. Now, with the previous two movies as examples and the trailer for the movie coming across as nothing we haven’t seen before, the plot seems pretty predictable and that is not what we had our qualms with.

Also Read : Neena Gupta Talked About Ageism In Bollywood And She’s So Right. We’ve No Idea What Rangoli Is Talking About Though

It was in fact, what actress Sonakshi Sinha had said in an interview with The Quint about the age gap between her and Salman Khan, that irked us into condemning Bollywood once again for its subtle gender bias. When probed about the casting for the movie and the age gap, Sonakshi replied by saying how she hadn’t thought about it like that and said, “No, actually I haven’t because, for me, it’s a job, right? And hats off to him for having sustained a career for so long in the industry, and you know, still working with as much gusto as he did, initially. And I think it’s great to have achieved something like that. So if you have a problem with it, you should go and ask him.”

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Sonakshi Sinha, who tried to answer the question with as much diplomacy as possible, was then again urged to talk about how if the places were traded between the two actors, where she had to be the elder woman romancing a young boy, what would she feel about it. To that, the actress replied by saying, “Honestly, if I was, I was at an age of 50, I would feel odd romancing a guy who’s 22-years-old.” And that right there, is what made us flip over the edge, because having said that, there isn’t much that Sonakshi Sinha or many other actresses in the industry are doing about it. You could be quick and subtle to point out the ageism and sexism in Bollywood, but considering you don’t have qualms about acting in such projects anyway, what does it say about you?

When the Dabangg actress was later asked why there existed such a bias between men and women, when it comes to such roles of romancing someone that younger, she said that it is just the way it is in our country. And we’d be lying if we said it weren’t the truth, but alas, it is. The country and every other industry still see women for their age, their body, their beauty, and only ever retain the male stars, grooming them to take on roles of 25 year olds even at 50 and being loved for it. Where as, the women are cast aside and replaced by younger versions of them as soon as they cross over 40. And even if, there are actresses like Sonakshi Sinha who too somewhat agree for this trend to be sexist and biased towards men, her hypocrisy is far from getting us and the women the change they so deeply desire.

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Till the time we let the filmmakers and directors exploit us, and not raise a voice against how things really are different for men and women in the fraternity, we are as much in the wrong as anyone of them, and that is what needs to change here. We too, need to take responsibility for the ageism in Bollywood and it wouldn’t happen by agreeing to roles that promote just that. Guess, it’s food for thought for Sonakshi!

Also Read : Saand Ki Aankh Director Says There Are Enough Roles For Older Actresses Out There. Erm, Where?

Sadhika Sehgal

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