Older heroes romancing young heroines on screen was a trend that spelt box-office success last year. There was the versatile Aamir Khan wooing the 24-year-old Asin in Ghajini, a nerdy-looking Shah Rukh Khan made debutante Anuskha Sharma (21) fall in love with him in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Salman Khan’s real-life lady love Katrina Kaif was paired opposite him in Yuvvraaj. The trend worked vice-versa too, with Bipasha Basu, at 30, romancing Ranbir Kapoor, 26, in Bachna Ae Haseeno and Vidya Balan matching steps with Shahid Kapoor in Kismet Konnection.

But 2009 has seen the tide turn. From Imran Khan to Ranbir, Shahid and Abhay Deol, they will all be seen romancing women their age. The big releases in the next six months — provided the multiplex-filmmaker standoff ends soon — will see young feet dancing to Bollywood numbers. “For several years, there weren’t too many debutantes in the industry. The last two years have seen the emergence of a lot of new faces. It is only co-incidental that they are paired opposite each other,” says filmmaker Soham Shah, whose next venture, Luck, stars 26-year-old Imran Khan opposite 22-year-old Shruti Haasan in lead roles. “The concept of my film is luck and an established pair would come across as larger than life. Hence, I wanted to cast people who had an unpredictable image,” says Shah. Carrying the youth legacy forward is Imran who is also cast opposite 24-year-old Kaif in Sanjay Gadhvi’s 7 Days in Paris.

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