Some time back, the trailer of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ starring Aamir Khan was released. And, many came forward to express their disappointment. While some were disappointed how the movie was an exact copy of Forrest Gump, some pointed out the uncanny resemblance of Khan’s character in this film to his other characters in ‘PK’ and ‘Dhoom 3’. They thought his expressions were the same in all three movies.
And, now once again, the film is under fire for casting 40-year-old Mona Singh as the mother of 57-year-old Aamir in the movie.
People took to Reddit to share how Bollywood is extremely obsessed with casting younger actors for older characters by making them wear heavy makeup and unnatural wigs but not considering older actors for the roles.
Here is what they thought of the entire situation:
1. “BW men refuse to age, even the so-called greatest of all… Aamir doesn’t have the self-awareness! Laughable and shameful!” – Illustrious_Tie_8487
2. “Audience – Actors romancing girls decades younger than them is problematic. Aamir – (do this)” – Sunnyside_d
3. “Not to mention younger than Kareena who would be her daughter in law in the film.” – Shamila1
4. “She was Kareena’s elder sister in 3 Idiots too” – vyrusrama
5. “This just makes me so angry.” – Ron_Because_Why_Not
6. “Like Shefali and Akshay in Waqt but worse” – MossRevolution
7. “The same goes for SRK! I love that man! No hate for him! But in Happy new year, Deepika and her chemistry with SRK was so off! Also same in Harry met Sejal with Anushka 😞😵💫” – Prize_Technician1314
8. “SRK low-key pulled it off in a happy new year. Harry Met Sejal was a mistake tho. But the issue is Aamir is remaking a classic, and also a character who is mentally challenged. To fuck this up is totally different from a romantic film. And the age difference is astoundingly obvious. Yeah, I do agree that SRK gets away with it more tho.” – mrs_robpatt
9. “Not cool I guess Aamir is also no different than the other mega stars of Bollywood. This industry as a whole is damning for the progress and respect of women.. If the tables were turned there would be so much talk about how ‘weird’ that is.. You can see that shit with Nick and Priyanka as well. Priyanka is problematic but the age shaming is disgusting…” – its_not_funny_Stop
Some netizens came forward to back the makers for doing this with explanations.
10. “Isn’t she playing a mother to a younger Aamir in the movie? They did the same to the original Forrest Gump aged her with makeup.” – Jal_Maq
11. “Let’s start with this. She is also playing the role of mother of “child” LSC. That child is maybe 8-10 years old. So a 40-year-old woman playing the role of a 10-year-old kid sounds about right. Now what would be really inappropriate is to cast some aged actress, ditching Mona Singh, for the role of mother of “adult” Aamir.” – NavdeepNSG
12. “Well considering that she has to play a woman of the age around 35-40 as a mother of young Forrest Gump, it is much easier to cast younger women and make her look older with makeup than making an older woman look younger. I really don’t think anyone wanna see DeNiro kicking type scenes of Irishman in movies” – Quandale-Dinngle
People blamed the audience as well.
13. “The audience is the biggest culprit here imo. As long as they are ok with these actors playing a lead role on screen and romancing younger actresses, they will continue to be bankable at the box office.” – Separate_Record9354
·This isn’t the first time that people have shared their disappointment about Bollywood’s age-inappropriate casting. Earlier, Shefali Shah also spoke about her disappointment in playing Akshay Kumar’s mother when he was 38 & she was 28.
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