Harshada Rege (DNA; May 9, 2017)

Aamir Khan has done it again. With his next biggie Thugs of Hindostan, he is now setting a record for being the first mainstream actor (and that too at his peak) to be playing a father as well as the leading man of the same actress. While he played dad to Fatima Sana Sheikh in his last release Dangal, come Diwali 2018 and he will have the same young woman for company as his leading lady in the Yash Raj movie.

“This is indeed a first,” quips an industry insider, “It needs guts to woo the same girl in your next biggie, who you you played father to in your previous movie. This has never happened before. Especially in two films back-to-back — in, which the actor has played a dad, and then romanced the same actress.”

Not that there aren’t precedents to this. However, in most of the instances, it is case of a hero or a heroine having a double role in a film which has led to the same person playing a parent as well as love interest. “However, it has just not been seen in two different films,” our source adds, “There are actors who have played on-screen fathers in a number of films, be it veteran actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Mithun Chakraborty or Naseeruddin Shah. However, none of them had an on-screen daughter in any of their films who also played their love interest immediately. Moreover, what also has to be noted is that they first played a leading man and then a dad. Furthermore, once they played a dad to a mainstream heroine, they were never back to being a leading man as a romantic hero. In this scenario, Aamir is defying all norms.”

In fact, what one keenly awaits now is the marketing acumen that Aamir brings on play during the next year-and-a-half where he would pretty much embark on a trip that would introduce Fatima as his leading lady.

“The memories of Fatima playing his daughter in Dangal will have to be erased in a gradual manner,” a veteran filmmaker opines, “Thankfully, there is a gap of almost two years between Dangal and Thug of Hindostan, so the shock quotient would be diminished by the time the Vijay Krishna Acharya film is ready for its Diwali release.”

Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi — Khuda Gawah
In the first half of the Mukul S. Anand directed film, Amitabh Bachchan played Sridevi’s husband. Later, in the second half when many years pass by, their daughter grows up to be Sridevi.

Anil Kapoor and Sridevi — Lamhe
In what stays on to be one of the boldest films ever to come out of Bollywood, Anil Kapoor played lover to both the characters played by Sridevi — one who was his love interest in the younger days and another (the biological and ditto-looking daughter of the woman) who meets him when he turns old.

Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna — Aradhana
Though Rajesh Khanna had a double role in Aradhana it was Sharmila Tagore who made the bold move of playing his love interest as well as his mother in the second half of the film. That is because the son turns out to look exactly like his father. Sharmila was required to interact with both in the film.

Raakhee and Amitabh Bachchan — Barsaat Ki Ek Raat and Shakti
This is one of the rare instances where a mainstream leading lady played a heroine as well as mother of the same man and that too in a span of just one year! Raakhee Gulzar had Amitabh Bachchan as his leading man in Barsaat Ki Ek Raat. Meanwhile, she also started shooting for Shakti where she played his mother. In the latter film, she had Dilip Kumar as her leading man.