Act Two in Bollywood
Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. Not old stars of Bollywood. Not anymore. Once relegated to mother or mother-in-law roles, the trend was for the reigning stars of their time such as Waheeda Rahman and Ashok Kumar to play daddies and mommies. Today, on the screens of multiplexes and streaming OTT content on TV in millions of homes, old stars have become supernovae.
There’s a Back to the Future revolution underway in Hindi showbiz: strong storylines, experimental directors and exciting new platforms have come together in this new age of streaming to give audiences more meaningful and relatable cinema. The best part is that the faces of this new revolution are not young silicone beauties and nymphets but good old stars, as bold as gold. And as valuable. Dimple Kapadia personifies the trend.
From her teenage debut in 1973 to now, she’s been unstoppable for five decades. If headlining Bollywood classics like Bobby, Saagar, Rudaali, Ram Lakhan and Dil Chahta Hai wasn’t enough, the actor has effortlessly switched over to new-age stories. Kapadia’s extended run is so good that films and characters are now being made with her in mind.
It may not have been planned but just last year the 65-year-old star had three back-to-back releases: blockbuster Pathaan, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, and Disney + Hotstar series Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo. In the first quarter of this year, Kapadia has played pivotal roles in Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and Netflix’s Murder Mubarak. Kapadia’s undeniable charisma and depth of experience landed her a role in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in 2020.
Not Just a Flash in the Pan
Kapadia is no lone ranger, for good roles are being scripted for many senior actors who have come into the limelight with their 2.0 versions, refreshing avatars of their former starry selves. Look at the flourishing careers of Shabana Azmi, Anil Kapoor, Neena Gupta, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Sushmita Sen, Raveena Tandon, Sanjay Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Annu Kapoor and many more. Bollywood’s oomph girl of the last century, Zeenat Aman, is set to make a comeback into films with Bun Tikki—bankrolled by fashion designer Manish Malhotra—alongside Azmi. Netizens have also heaped praises on Karisma Kapoor for her performance as a wacky and eccentric character in the recently released Murder Mubarak.
Says Amit Joshi, writer-director of Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, “New age stories and contemporary cinema are giving opportunities to actors from every age bracket. It is not just about the hero and heroine; today you want to make sure that each and every character stands out.” Kapadia agrees. Her response to work remains honest as ever. “I am grateful for strong, credible parts for me to sink my teeth into. Till they continue coming, I will be happy to play with them, otherwise I am happy to be chilling and watching the rest,” she says.
Joshi, however, has an interesting take on what makes these new-old stars shine: “Senior actors like Dimple, Dharmendra ... they have an aura. They are so experienced and when you give them a new story, they want to have fun playing their parts. In the earlier decades, they were restricted to playing hero and heroine, they had this responsibility of the film on their shoulders. Now they are not coming with any preconceived notion; they are coming with a very new, exciting energy. They want to give their best.”
Azmi, no stranger to offbeat and challenging roles, is in her 50th year in the industry. Even a veteran like her is taken by surprise with the diverse roles coming to her at this stage. She has recently shot for four films around the same time—Steven Spielberg’s Halo (series now running in its second season), Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Ghoomer and What’s Love Got To Do With It. “Filmmakers have realised that content is king and they are upping their game,” she says.
So what’s changed? “Earlier there was this notion that audiences were interested only in a certain kind of film but audiences have always been open as long as the story is interesting,” says Azmi. She underlines her point with Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth, released in 1982. “Distributors would say it’s a powerful film but you must change the ending because the Indian audience would never accept that an Indian wife would walk away in spite of her husband apologising to her. Mahesh Bhatt and I dug our heels in and said the ending was the raison d’être of the film and we were going ahead, never mind what. The film was loved both by critics and the box office and won me a National Award,” says Azmi.
Audiences have changed too. Age is not a factor in a web-based world; mileage is, to paraphrase Garam Dharam from Johnny Gaddaar. Psychologist at Marengo Asia Hospitals, Faridabad, Dr Jaya Sukul, explains. “The younger generation is trying to create a reference point for themselves by breaking stereotypes. If we look at social media, the older generation is as invested in content creation as the younger generation these days. The behavioural pattern in young adults tells us they want role models to look up to. They no longer find the marginalised older generation cool and hence accept older people who are comfortable playing a second innings. Who would mind having a daadi like Zeenat Aman?” she says.
Bun Tikki director Faraz Arif Ansari (of Sheer Qorma fame) has made a conscious decision of casting women ‘of a certain age’. He echoes Azmi, and feels not enough is being done for senior actors compared to Hollywood. “Audiences always wanted to watch good subjects but nobody was making such films. If you keep telling people this is the only thing you will be fed, they will consume just that. If you make more available then they will at least try it,” says Ansari.
The icons Ansari chooses only add to the content. “I wanted these veteran actresses to inherently be part of the narrative. To see Zeenat and Shabana in the same frame is going to be iconic. In the West there is a larger opportunity being given to women actors of a certain age, be it Olivia Colman or Emma Thompson. There is a legacy that the West really inherits, even if it is just for the sake of being inclusive; it doesn’t matter as long as these stories are being told. My thought always goes to very strong women characters and I always want to make them the heroes of my film, and that will remain my focus in my journey as a filmmaker. That is why both Shabana and Zeenat are the heroes of my film. They are the backbone and without them my film doesn’t work,” he explains.
Story is King
It’s not just the cinematography of iconography. Most industry experts give credit to new-age writers and directors for the successful second innings of senior actors. Experimenting with the medium and a keen eye for casting senior actors in appropriate roles is what turns the trick now. Says trade analyst Girish Wankhede, “New tribes of writers and directors are so wonderfully using the talent of veterans. Homi Adajania has got a lot of senior actors—Dimple Kapadia, Karisma Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor together in Murder Mubarak.” Wankhede traces the old star phenom back to A Wednesday in 2008. “Neeraj Pandey started the trend of casting senior actors with A Wednesday where he had Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah as the protagonists,” he says.
The star is the focal point of the effort. “From Special 26 onwards Anupam has played a vital role in all his films. Directors like Neeraj believe that these characters make all the difference. Senior actors like Pankaj Tripathi or Annu Kapoor don’t play second fiddle but have strong roles. Juhi Chaturvedi so wonderfully used the talent of veterans like Amitabh Bachchan and Annu Kapoor in Piku, Gulabo Sitabo and Vicky Donor. So did Raaj Shandilya with Annu Kapoor’s character in Dream Girl,” he says.
As Kareena Kapoor Khan had told this writer around the release of Laal Singh Chaddha in 2022, “Today it is not about stars, it is about the content. If your film is good it will work. It is as simple as that. Today there are no stars, we are all actors, we are trying to figure out and do good work, and I think that is a good intention when we are all trying to do the best we can. There is no guarantee for anything, the guarantee is only for content. When you make a good film, or a good show, or a good film on OTT, people will watch it.”
Wankhede appreciates the maturing of audiences too. “The credit also goes to the audience with new sensibilities where people don’t see a difference between an art house cinema or mainstream cinema but they come to cinema only to watch good content. Now the whole emphasis is on pure entertainment which could be with the aid of veterans or with the help of stars,” he says.
From Screening to Streaming
The supernova-like explosion of OTT and fast evolution of multiple streaming platforms does stand out as the primary reason for the revival of careers of many senior actors. Sanjay Kapoor, who made a splash with Prem opposite Tabu in the mid 90s, went through a lean phase thereafter but his second innings has been quite remarkable. “The OTT platform has given me a second chance. I am getting important roles in every format.
With OTT I am working with some of the finest talent; I worked in Bloody Daddy with Ali Abbas Zaffar and I am currently working with Prakash Jha for a show called Laalbatti. My two recent films—Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas and Murder Mubarak—happened only because of my previous projects on OTT. If I had not done Lust Stories and The Fame Game (both on Netflix) and Amazon Prime’s The Last Hours I don’t think I would have got Merry Christmas,” he says.
Senior actors are also shedding inhibitions and challenging stereotypes mid-stream. Reacting to Dharmendra’s lip-lock scene with Azmi in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, his former junior colleague Shatrughan Sinha says with a laugh, “Dharmendra is making the best of it.” In Maja Ma, Madhuri Dixit plays a closet lesbian and she says, “Digital platforms have freed storytellers from the trappings of the box office and have made it possible for actors to take up ‘bold’ subjects. Times were different in the 90s. With the advent of OTT, different stories can be told without having to think of the constraints of releasing them in theatres.”
Kapadia is forever willing to experiment. Adajania who has worked with her on Cocktail, Finding Fanny, Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo and now Murder Mubarak, says, “It’s joyful working with Dimple because she is fearless.” Azmi says it wasn’t the actors who typecast themselves. “Senior actors, particularly women were relegated to playing mothers to heroes even older than them, ready to drop their pooja thaali at the slightest bad news, screaming ‘nahin!” she chuckles. Sanjay Kapoor concurs. “It is not that we actors were scared in the earlier phase, it is the producers who were scared. Today you can cater to a certain kind of audience with a niche film,” he says.
Some stars were brave enough to walk the plank into seas in the pre-OTT age. Over a decade ago, Bollywood’s then ‘serial kisser’ Emraan Hashmi had felt that veteran actor and his co-star Naseeruddin Shah had got bolder and ‘dirtier’ in their film The Dirty Picture, inspired by late Southern sex symbol Silk Smitha’s life. “As far as the bold quotient goes… I am doing my own bold stuff but Naseer is the boldest in the film,” Hashmi had then said. His words sound prophetic now, as old stars experiment with new things.
Filling the Gap?
Some industry experts have a logistical take on the old star trend. A dearth of stars is a reason they cite to explain why veterans are back in the game. “After the Khans we have only Ranbir Kapoor... in the last five to 10 years we have not seen the upsurge of stars whereas we have seen the upsurge of actors, or senior actors. From Vikrant Massey to Vijay Verma coming from small windows, from television and OTT to films. We used to have so many multi-starrers in the 70s and the 80s but today we don’t have enough stars, so these senior artistes have become the stars for us,” says trade analyst Girish Wankhede.
Is content the real star then? Yes, says Wankhede. “In a film like Mimi we have Pankaj Tripathi who is the hero as well as the godfather as well as the main lead. It is because the role is written in such a way and we don’t need a star. Your content itself is the star. Badhaai Ho was purely Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao’s film and that is because of writing,” he says.
And there are others who believe that senior actors may be OTT sensations but won’t be able to deliver the goodies at the box office. “Whether it is Neena Gupta or Shatrughan Sinha or a whole lot of other actors, streaming is doing justice to such actors. Bobby Deol for a very long period of time wasn’t doing great on the silver screen or otherwise and suddenly he comes in Ashram and becomes a phenomenon. He did extremely well in Class of 83 as well and all of that resulted in Animal which has become the iconic character of his career,” says Akshay Rathi, film exhibitor and distributor.
That’s no comment on their talent though. “All these people who today don’t have the ability to essentially make a huge draw at the box office but are phenomenally exciting for streaming are relevant all over again and that I think is great because many of these people are genuinely talented,” says Rathi.
Passion Inc.
The zeal in many of these senior actors adds to the burnishing of the old. Amitabh Bachchan had approached Yash Chopra for work, leading to Mohabbatein; it put his career back on track. Social media works too. Five years ago, veteran actress Neena Gupta shared a post on Instagram asking for work. The senior actor posted a beautiful picture of herself captioned: ‘I live in Mumbai and working as a good actor looking for good parts to play’. Her daughter Masaba had said: “My mother told me they don’t write for women her age anymore… she complains that she can’t do PR... but says ‘I do good work, that’s my PR’.” Gupta’s outreach worked; she was inundated with offers and better roles, including Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk (2018) and Badhaai Ho. The fact that Gupta outshone Ayushmann Khurrana in Badhaai Ho speaks volumes of her acting prowess. “The idea of an older woman getting pregnant drew me to the script,” Gupta had then told the writer.
Not just Neena, even the late Surekha Sikri’s performance received so much praise from the audience and critics alike, once again proving the fact that in acting, age is just a number. After all, Boman Irani made his acting debut at the age of 42.
Ansari recalls how both Azmi and Aman were totally invested in his film. “Halfway through a very emotional scene, Shabana was standing teary-eyed watching the take that I had just okayed. Both used to be on set even when I was not filming with them and observing the whole environment created on the set. Who does that? The young actors give their shot and go into their vanity vans. Whether it was food on the table, or colour of the curtain or costumes, Shabana would make sure everything was exactly the way it should be. Once, Shabana woke up at 4 am to rehearse her lines and also had suggestions to make the scene better,” Ansari recalls.
Joshi underlines the passion with Dimple Kapadia’s example. “Her preparation is top-notch. She is an intelligent person; she has an aura, personality, she is so chilled out. I was a new director and yet the senior artistes showed a lot of respect, passion, dedication and discipline on set,” he says. Dharmendra, too, comes in for a special Joshi mention. “He would improvise on set; he would write the scene in Urdu and do rehearsals. He had his own way of communicating the dialogues that I had written and that can come only with experience. All the senior actors today are committed to their craft, they are doing such great work because they are open to new stories, they are here for the love of cinema.”
The trend has begun to pull in even those stars who maintained a studied distance. Shatrughan Sinha has finally succumbed to the temptation of a meaty role, that of a “zabardast political personality” and a “gentleman politician” in the forthcoming web series Gangs of Ghaziabad. “I lead the story, which revolves around my character. I was excited about the role and I finished the project before time. It was a great experience. I would reach sets before time unlike in the past as I was known to reach late for shoots. For me there is less excitement since I have done so many films but I found this different, my role is pro-people and that matches my image. People love me, there is a political image and I won’t do anything that would disappoint or hurt those who love me. At present the focus is on the coming elections; after that I may take up more projects in the future,” says Sinha.
Kareena Kapoor, whose career is constantly evolving, had once said that she wants to emulate Meryl Streep who stayed at the top of the business for decades. “I’d like to do some heavy-duty performance-oriented films. I’m a Meryl Streep fan and I think age or marital status can never be a deterrent for an actor. The only thing that one needs is passion.”
And passion never gets old.
Dimple Kapadia
From the teen sensation in Bobby (1973) that had the nation in thrall to a series of big hits in the 90s, she’s gone all the way to Hollywood and new-age stories on OTT platforms now
Zeenat Aman
The very definition of oomph, the original pin-up girl of Bollywood is making a comeback with Bun Tikki where she co-stars with Shabana Azmi
Dharmendra
The handsome He-Man has been taking leading roles from the days of black and white all through to the present. He’s kissing 90 but prefers to lock lips with co-stars like Shabana Azmi, as in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani
Raveena Tandon
Mast Mast in the 90s to sometimes dead serious, sometimes fun now, Raveena Tandon hasn’t aged a day, nor has lost any verve, as her comeback on Netflix, the OTT series Aranyak, showed
Karisma Kapoor
An impeccable Bollywood lineage led to a clutch of Filmfare awards as well as a National Award. The fun girl of megahit Raja Hindustani has rediscovered her prowess on the web with the series Mentalhood.
And she’s not done yet
Shatrughan Sinha
Old Shotgun crossed over from big, bad Bollywood into the bigger, badder world of politics. That remains his first love, but fans can’t wait to hear that 12-gauge voice again in the forthcoming Gangs of Ghaziabad. “I’m excited,” says the man who’s seen it all
Sanjay Kapoor
He had it all, and then some, but Kapoor’s career as a leading actor never really took off. Not one to give up, he forayed into production and TV, but it was the web that revived him, with Lust Stories and The Fame Game. Watch out, there’s more coming
Jackie Shroff Model,
and then leading man and action star, who has the unique distinction of playing hero in a hit called Hero, this laidback lad from Mumbai has made a comeback on the web, wiser and a little wizened. And he’s still rocking it
Neena Gupta
A rich and varied career, from Attenborough’s Gandhi to Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro to a National Award in 1994, Gupta went to social media looking for a role, and the rest, well, is history that continues to be made
