Madhuri Dixit, Asha Parekh, Neena Gupta: Bollywood actresses who spoke about ageism

Actresses being cast just as male actor's love interest and to increase the glamour quotient of the films are things of the past now. Today, things have evolved greatly but we still have a long way to go. Amongst the lot of problems that female actors still face is ageism. Many actresses have time and again voiced their opinion against the issue. From Madhuri Dixit, Asha Parekh to Neena Gupta, here we take a look at actors who spoke about ageism in Bollywood.

Shefali Shah has found a new ground for herself as an actor where she has been churning out some brilliant performances on OTT and films. The actress was one of the prominent ones to speak about ageism in the industry. The actress had once pointed out how she was 28 years old when she played the role of a mother to Akshay Kumar who was 32 years old in 'Waqt: The Race Against Time'. After becoming frustrated at constantly playing “aged” roles, Shefali Shah decided that she would be more selective about the roles she took on.

Asha Parekh, who is one of the most talented veteran actors we have in Bollywood, expressed her opinion on ageism in Bollywood. The actress pointed out how people are writing roles for male actors like Amitabh Bachchan but not for someone like her who are mostly of the same age. She also went on to add that actors after a certain age are just given roles of mother, sister or grandmothers in films.

Neena Gupta, who is enjoying her second innings in the industry, has time and again talked about the lack of central roles for women of her age. In an interview with a news portal, Neena spoke about how our industry is scared of ageing that they hire 40-year-old women to play 60-year-old women! The industry is consistently hiring younger actresses to play older women.

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Madhuri Dixit, who commands a huge fan following on social media and across the nation, feels that the problem of ageism is not just related to the entertainment industry. According to her, it is everywhere. The actress said in an interview that it’s high time that we break these stereotypes and address the fact that it’s always a comeback for a female actor, even if she was away for a few months, and never for a male actor, even if he was away for years.

Dia Mirza is one actress who has always spoken her mind and has never minced her words. Expressing her opinion on older actors being cast opposite younger actresses, Dia Mirza had told ETimes, “The idea of beauty is always associated with youthfulness. I think that is why there is a large interest in consuming younger faces or watching. An aberration to this would be an actress like Neena Guptaji. 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.”