Women over 40 have always had a tough time getting anything but a mother role but a youth-obsessed entertainment industry may be slowly waking up to their talent
Sonam Joshi (THE TIMES OF INDIA; November 3, 2019)

In 2017, frustrated by the lack of good roles on offer for someone her age, actor Neena Gupta shared her wish for “good parts to play” on Instagram. Two years hence, the 60-year-old has landed several meaty jobs, including Masaba Masaba, a TV series based on her and her daughter’s life, a sequel of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan and a thriller called Gwalior. She’s also working on a mysterious new project, where “I will give myself the role I want to play.”

That’s a rare luxury for older women actors in India who fear being thrown into the rocking chair — or worse, the scrapheap — while their male contemporaries continue to romance actresses half their age. And while it may be too soon to say that India’s film and TV industry is embracing the forty-plus female actor, the seasoned silver brigade seems to be getting more opportunities to play more vibrant characters.

If the world re-discovered Gupta through her character of a pregnant middle-aged woman in Badhaai Ho, Shefali Shah made a comeback with Delhi Crime, based on the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

Shah, 46, who played older characters quite early in her career, admits she was typecast into the role of the mother. “The kind of work I was being offered was not anything apart from a mother or a grandmother — like a rocking chair in the house that you dump your clothes on. I worked hard to break that image but had to wait a lot. Delhi Crime has broken that for me.”

Shah, who was applauded for her performance as a frustrated homemaker in the YouTube film Juice, and as a widowed restaurateur finding romance in Once Again, says that OTT platforms are leading the change. “Yes, there is definitely ageism. (Male) Actors can play the lead forever and forever but there are very few lead roles for women in this age group,” she says.

This toxic combination of sexism and ageism isn’t just restricted to Bollywood or Hollywood. Anna M M Vetticad, author, The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, says India’s three biggest film industries — Tollywood, Bollywood and Kollywood — are united by their misogyny. “Films like Jackpot (Tamil) and Mahanati (Tamil and Telugu), where plots revolve around women, are uncommon,” she adds. According to her, the ageism directed at older women is exemplified by the casting of Rajinikanth’s female romantic leads who range in age from being old enough to be his daughters and young enough to be his granddaughters. “Women of Rajinikanth’s age are not deemed worthy of being romanced on screen by Rajinikanth,” she says.

Neena Gupta agrees that it will still take more time to break the mould. In fact, she recently pointed out that the roles of two sharpshooting grandmothers in the film Saand Ki Aankh, which were played by Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar who are both in their early 30s, could have gone to actors her age. “I don’t mean that the actors who did the film are bad, but that there are fewer roles for older women and I wish it wasn’t so,” Gupta says.

Going deeper into the reason for this reluctance to cast older women, Gupta says finally it boils down to what makes commercial sense, and the role of an older woman in our society. “She still doesn’t have any value. She is only required for domestic chores.”

Seema Pahwa, who had found fame in the 1980s TV show Hum Log, points out that though she is still playing mother, the character is more layered and nuanced. “The industry doesn’t write many roles for women above 50, so our fight is to find a way to make the existing ones better. But thank god we have reached the stage where the mother’s role is considered important and is more than a passing shot,” says Pahwa, 56.

She recently turned director, with her debut film Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi inspired by her real-life experiences. The film has an ensemble cast but one of its central characters, the widow of Ramprasad, is essayed by Supriya Pathak, 57. “She is the protagonist and it is about her awakening,” says Pathak.

Two new films shine a light on the emotional lives of older women as well. Director Tanuja Chandra, whose recent documentary film Aunty Radha, Aunty Sudha, focuses on her two eighty-plus aunts who live together in an Uttar Pradesh village, says older women deserve to have many more stories told about them. “For me, it was crucial to have a record of the lives, thoughts and emotions of my aunts and the people with them. That world may soon be lost to us.”

Debutant director Kislay’s Aise Hee follows an elderly Allahabad resident named Mrs Sharma after she loses her husband at the age of 72 and decides to live life on her own terms, building relationships with the women working in a nearby salon and a tailor who teaches her embroidery. The character is played by veteran TV actor Mohini Sharma, who has acted in TV serials like Shanti and films like Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. “Usually when old people are shown in films, they are very cutesy or modern or cliched. We didn’t want to fall into these traps,” Kislay says.

The film marks Sharma’s return to the big screen after nearly 25 years — and to her surprise earned a special jury mention for best actor (female) at the MAMI film festival. “I’ve waited many years for a good film and said no to many roles of the hero’s mother and later grandmother,” recalls Sharma, 73. “My question to them would always be to tell me about my character. I don’t want to be the central character but it has to be important — not just standing in the background shedding tears. With this film, I felt satisfied as an artiste.”