When Juhi Chawla appeared on the latest episode of Salman Khan’s show Bigg Boss, little did she know that the Dabangg star would be offering her a role in a future film — as his onscreen ma!
Juhi, 48, was a guest on Salman’s show, and joked about how she was the only actress of his generation who he hadn’t starred in a film with. But Salman pointedly reminded her of a film project by producer Bobby Kent, which was originally meant to feature Salman and Juhi, from which she had backed out — but not before recommending that Aamir Khan, and not Salman, be chosen for the lead.
Juhi brushed aside the comment by saying, “We can work together now!” To which, Salman promptly drawled, “Yeah, you can play my mother now.”
While the remark was very much in the vein of irreverent humour that Salman is known for, not everyone saw it as quite such a harmless joke. “Salman was probably being his usual facetious self on camera. But it also reflects the gender bias in our cinema where actresses beyond a certain age are relegated to playing mothers’ roles while their male counterparts are still romancing girls half their age,” an industry observer commented.
The age-gap isn’t a problem in Bollywood alone. Even in H’wood, several eyebrows were raised when Angelina Jolie was cast as Colin Farrell’s mother in Alexander. She was then 28 years old, to his 27. Sally Field played Tom Hank’s mother (she is only a decade older than Hanks) in Forrest Gump, while Glenn Close, who is nine years older than Mel Gibson, was cast as his mother in Hamlet.
