The Thriving 30s

The 30-year-old actor is blocked by all the Khans in 2012. Here’s the breakdown: Ra.One with Shah Rukh Khan,Agent Vinod with beau Saif Ali Khan,My Love Story (a remake of the Malayalam hit Bodyguard) with Salman Khan,Reema Kagti’s untitled thriller with Aamir Khan and Karan Johar’s Short-Term Shaadi with Imran Khan.

Bollywood is indeed waking up to the change. The age lines are vanishing,and thirties no longer herald the dreaded pack -up. Today’s girls are thriving in their 30s.

Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan are taking the lead in this season’s big ticket thriller No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ). The Rajkumar Gupta-directed film is driven by the two leading ladies who keep it simple but very taut. Mukerji is attempting a comeback of sorts with NOKJ and Kagti’s Aamir Khan movie. She’s dodged the shaadi rumours,distanced herself from the Yash Raj camp and gone for an image makeover. Her über-stylish wardrobe during the NOKJ promotion sends out a clear message that she’s back in the game.

As for Vidya,post-NOKJ,she gets set to enact the life of southern siren Silk Smitha in Ekta Kapoor’s The Dirty Picture. In Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahani,she does a desi Kill Bill as a pregnant woman who goes looking for her missing husband.

So are the thirties the new twenties for Bollywood? Has the shelf life of a Bollywood heroine finally increased? Kareena is optimistic. “I don’t think it’s so difficult. Yes,it is a male-dominated industry but if you are good at what you do,directors will always keep you in mind. Then,it boils down to which films you want to be a part of,” she says.

Last year,Kajol and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had seven mainstream film releases between them. Marriage and age did not affect their filmography. Kajol showed off her histrionics in My Name Is Khan,We Are Family and Toonpur Ka Superhero. She even managed to find time to have a second child (baby boy,Yug) in this chock-a-block schedule. Ash,meanwhile,starred in Raavan and Raavanan,Action Replayy,Endhiran/Robot and Guzaarish. While the box-office result of her films was largely unflattering,that she is still on top director’s “go-to” list is a testament to her star status as well as Bollywood’s maturity.

The big picture is encouraging,but it’s not all that easy. The actors are not taking this phase for granted. As Kajol says,“It’s difficult to get the meaty roles after a while. Filmmaking is a business; nobody makes a movie out of the goodness of his or her heart. At the end of the day,Rajinikanth is still working and that too with Aishwarya Rai as his heroine. In that sense,there is no comparison.”

Ultimately it’s all down to the directors,who do not want to compromise on their stories. If Vishal Bhardwaj decides to make Saat Khoon Maaf,which details a girl’s life from her teens to the age of 65,Priyanka Chopra agrees to age on screen. Chopra sat through agonising hours of prosthetic settings to look like a 65- year-old,and if the promo of the film is any indication,she seems to look the part.

It’s about time we grew up to the age challenge. Finally,in Turning 30,we have a poster of a Hindi film that screams out the girl’s age. The times,they are a-changin’.