Neena Gupta, Dia Mirza, Lara Dutta: 5 actresses who called out ageism in Bollywood

For the longest time, Bollywood actresses who crossed a certain age landed no work, while men of the same age ruled at the box office. While things are definitely changing on this front, it is still a long way to go. We take a look at actresses like Neena Gupta, Dia Mirza, Lara Dutta and others who have opened up how the film industry stereotypes older women.

Neena Gupta is making the most of her second innings in Bollywood and a string of successful films she has been a part of is proof! The actress, who is known to wear her heart on her sleeves, had opened up about there not being enough roles for women of her age. Responding to a Tweet that read, ‘I love @bhumipednekar and @taapsee but I kinda wish older actors were cast in these roles. Could you imagine @Neenagupta001 and @AzmiShabana or Jaya Bachchan? #SaandKiAankh’, Neena had written, ‘Yes i was just thinking about this hamari umar ke role toe kamsekam humse kara lo bhai.’

Read Also: 'Saand Ki Aankh' controversy: Internet stands by Neena Gupta in ageism debate

Expressing her opinion on older actors being cast opposite younger actresses, Dia Mirza had earlier 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 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.”

Elaborating further, she added, “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.”

Lara Dutta, who has been winning hearts with her performances on OTT of late, opened up about how she has received some critical and judgmental comments over the years. According to Lara, the industry is not kind to actresses of her age and they don’t allow them to age gracefully. Although there are some credible actors like Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Madhuri Dixit and herself, rude audiences pass comments like, ‘Buddhi ho gayi’ and ‘Ab moti ho gayi hai’ when they come on screen. However, at the same time, actors like Neena Gupta and Ratna Pathak Shah are inspiring others with their incredible work.

Read Also: Lara Dutta says film industry is not kind to actresses above 40; rude audience calls them 'buddhi'

Soni Razdan who is making her presence felt even today with brilliant performances in shows like, ‘Call My Agent’ and others recently pointed out to the fact that she did not get work for so many years owing to her age. According to her, Bollywood was completely skewed towards men. They could be 40, 50 and 60 and still be getting good roles but women didn’t have those opportunities.

Soha Ali Khan also joined the bandwagon of actresses calling out ageism in Bollywood by stating that these kinds of work did not exist a generation ago. According to her, if she had come back to just doing theatrical releases there would be nothing for her.