The notion that it is only the female stars who needs to reinvent themselves or do experimental small roles once there stardom is over a false misconception. Yes, men have a longer shelf life so they do get away doing the mainstream roles and movies longer than their female contemporaries but the minute the audience reject them as a mainstream hero even male actors need to take up risky, offbeat non-mainstream, character roles or side roles to stay relevant. The actors who could not re-invent or adapt with time stay at home or are not considered relevant has-beens.
The biggest example is Amitabh Bachchan. He is doing all types of risky out there roles that he would have never dared to do during his prime as the mega superstar. In Nishabd an older man who develops feelings for his teenage daughter's friend, in Pa he played a young boy who is suffering from progeria, have not seen Boom but the part or movie was something he would have never done in his prime, Cheeni Kam, Black, 102 Not out, Pink not your mainstream roles. Even Rishi has said that in his prime he had a set image of romantic hero he would have never gotten roles that does not fit that image but now he is doing array of different roles and characters. Mulk, 102 Not Out, Kapoor and sons, negative roles Agneepath, D-Day.
wheather it is a male or female star, once your stardom has faded one need to do take risks, re-invent, do more charcter sidey roles just to stay relevant.. For actresses their time comes much sooner than their male contemporaries, which is totally unfair but is a whole different issue altogether. When the time comes actors who are smart do reinvent and transition it is just that the timing is not the same for actor and actresses of same age.It is a whole other issue that women above a certain age (the age threshold in bollywood is 40 it seems) rarely get good meaty roles or offers and has a shorter shelf life than their male contemporaries and this a good discussion point for the roundtable but Anupama did not bring it up as this issue is a male vs female thing exposes the sexist mindset more than the male vs female risk taking
Edited by Melissaa - 4 years ago
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