Director Suresh Triveni and Nana collaborated on the 2026 action-drama film Subedaar. Patekar made a striking retro special cameo appearance in the film as Lance Naik Nana Waghmare.

Suresh tells us, “I was fortunate to work with him and he readily agreed. His bond with Anil Kapoor was incredible and he told me clearly, ‘Main yeh karunga toh Anil ke liye karunga.’ It was honourary, he did it as a favour to us. We shot his scenes in Mumbai rather than Chambal. We shot at J W Marriott, while he was also shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj's O'Romeo. He had got his dabba and was eating it in between speaking to me. He loved talking about food. He wrapped his portions in two-and half hours. He had to stand on a tall surface because we were to add VFX. He played a soldier and knew how to uncock the gun. He said ‘yeh mujhe mat sikha main jaanta hoon’ and just did it quickly. "

On an emotional note he says, “There was a certain warmth and for me it was a bucket list tick to see him and Anil sir together. Anil sir gave him cues for the shot though he was not needed there. That scene echoed in the climax and a lot of people reached out to me that they were surprised. The idea was to have multiple cameos in that scene but once he came on board he is equivalent to many.”

I remember the single happiest day of my teenage years. I came back from school and found a pink letter on my table. It was a friendship band that was sent by Jasmeet Walia, aka Jassi. At 12, I genuinely thought of Jassi [the lead in the show Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (2003–2006)] as my friend. And there began my love for Mona Singh. Many years later, during an interview, I told her this story and she laughed. “That innocence of Jassi is something I hope we always carry with ourselves,” she’d told me.

In the past few years, everywhere we look, we see Singh. She is the tough cop in Sudeep Sharma’s Kohrra. She is a don in Vir Das’s wacky Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos. She is the hero’s warm mother in Aryan Khan’s Ba***ds Of Bollywood (2025). She is the doctor who can save the world in Netflix’s Kaala Paani (2023). She is also Sunny Deol’s bantering wife in Border 2. And she is the menacing Babli Didi, a mafia queen in Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar. It raises the same question in everyone’s mind — how is she in so many things all at once, never looking out of place in any of these diverse set ups?

The best answer I found to this, came from a late night conversation with Saurabh Khanna, writer of Yeh Meri Family (2018), and the producer of Kaala Paani (2023). He said, quite-matter-of-factly, “She is a Bachchan! Aap koi bhi film dekh lo, Bachchan sahab ki, film kaisi bhi ho, Bachchan sahab kabhi kharab nahin hotey!”

Khanna’s Yeh Meri Family is considered to be Singh’s turning point. She played a mother to three kids in ’90s small town India. What about that show made Khanna think of Singh? “When we started casting, we knew we wanted familiar faces. This wasn’t a show about big lines, big drama. It was about everyday stories. She has this unique quality that she can shine in whatever you give her. Very rarely do we get actors who take punt on fresh ideas, who don’t ask ‘mere opposite kaun hai?’”

Singh broke out with her iconic role Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin in 2003. The role itself was a risk. Television boom had seen an influx of interesting new actors but for any avid TV viewer of that era, Jassi was a revelation. An unofficial adaptation of Ugly Betty, Jassi too was the story of how a spirited young hard working woman is constantly admonished because she does not meet the traditional standards of beauty.  At its peak, the show touched a TRP of 9.2 making it among the most-watched television programs in the country. In Jassi, young women saw their own story of being reduced to just their looks.

But success, especially of that magnitude, comes with its own design to pigeonhole someone. For Singh, the shadow of Jassi wouldn’t leave so easy. For years after the show ended, the industry struggled to see her beyond the braces.

“There was a time when people only saw me as Jassi,” she has said. Breaking that image took a lot of courage from her end, which also meant fresh punts. Between 2006 (after Jassi ended) and 2009, Singh was on both Jhalak Dikkhla Jaa and 3 Idiots (2009) — her first film with Aamir Khan, trying her hand at evolving in whatever way she could. She hosted reality shows, did her work in TV but she was made for greater things and it was the advent of OTT that put the spotlight back on her craft.

But it was Khanna’s Ye Meri Family and Ekta Kapoor’s Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai (2018–2020), that was the first of her big OTT outings. In the latter, Singh plays an independent artiste in a relationship with a married man. Written by Neena Gupta, the show portrays Singh with grace.

In 2018, Singh had told mid-day, “It is a tricky part. Ekta Kapoor (the show’s producer) was very sure from the beginning that she will not project her as a vamp. She is a modern woman who happens to fall in love with a married man.” It ties in with what Khanna had told us about Singh’s choices, “Expect the unexpected from her. That’s what she is seeking.”

It’s this very tryst that took her to play Aamir Khan’s mother in Laal Singh Chaddha (2022). As Singh had once corrected me, she is Laal’s mother, defending her decision of agreeing to play a mom to a man well her senior. During his drive from Goa to Mumbai, Adavait Chandan, director of Laal Singh Chaddha, called us to chat about what makes Singh such a phenomenal actor.

“There is a scene where she is crying when Aamir’s character is graduating. Even when I was directing that scene, I had tears in my eyes. It is my favourite scene of hers. She did become Laal’s mother. I find that loyalty she has her for work and craft, her most defining quality. She is a really great person and that energy feeds every character she plays. When our film didn’t work, she held me and we cried together. She taught me so much about how resilient an actor can be.”

But co-stars remember something entirely different about Singh. It’s her big laugh, that stays with those she meets on set, and her ability to remain calm under pressure.

Co-star Aditya Rawal, who worked with her on Subedaar, tells us, “This one day we had a big shoot sequence for Subedaar. We were shooting in Chembur and had ordered for chole bhature from somewhere. And then we had this really intense scene. No matter what Mona is shooting, she has this ability to stay calm. She can switch on and off between scenes. She is seamless in front of the camera. And as someone who was working with her, that I felt is the reason why she has endured across mediums, formats,” Rawal tells us.

Aditya Sarpotdar who directed her in the hit film Munjya (2024), told us, “She has always been a very secure actor. She would always encourage the new younger talent and was very approachable for all the young actors around her.”

But no one can read you better than the one who gave you your break. Rajan Shahi, who directed Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, says the secret to her evolution is quite simple. It’s the one virtue she has had all along in her life, “When I think of Mona, the thing that stands out is she is a selfless soul. She is a true artiste. I remember something from her pre-Jassi success days.  She was a nervous student, sitting with script, learning lines, scared before exams. Till date, she is still that nervous student wanting to do well. After the show broke out, Mona was the biggest TV star back then. I remember one day SRK was crossing our set, he and his children waved at her and she waved back. We then got a call from Yash Chopra saying Shah Rukh and his kids want to meet Mona. So many people change after success. They slow down creatively, fame corrupts them. But Mona has stayed grounded. She is humble and kind. When I watched Kohrra season two, I was so surprised that the same young girl is this fine actor today. You know why Mona jaisi koi nahin, because Mona remains unfazed by fame!”

For decades, senior characters in Hindi cinema were relegated to narrow templates: the selfless, sacrificing goddess figure, the widowed mother praying for Karan and Arjun’s return, or Raj and Pooja Malhotra navigating late-life heartbreak in Baghban. Even in lighter films, elders remained affectionate side notes: Amarjeet Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor) in Kapoor & Sons, the loving dadi (Farida Jalal) in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, or the spirited tipplers Dolly Arora (Dolly Ahaluwalia) and Biji (Kamlesh Gill) in Vicky Donor. Their role was to nurture, advise, or amuse.

Recent films offer a striking reversal. In Vadh, retired schoolteacher Shambhunath Mishra (played by Sanjay Mishra) murders a predatory loan shark and carefully stages the perfect cover-up. Its follow-up, Vadh 2, places him inside prison, navigating the underworld economy that thrives behind bars. In Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar, retired army man Arjun Maurya (played by Anil Kapoor) works as a mafia bodyguard and answers humiliation with violence.

Look further south and Mammootty is rewriting the rules of ageing on screen, first as the unsettling anti-hero of Rorschach (2022) and, more recently, as a calculating serial killer in Kalamkaval (2025).

Women characters have also moved decisively away from the saintly mould. In Vadh 2, Neena Gupta plays Manju, a double-murder convict plotting escape. In the streaming series Mrs Deshpande, Madhuri Dixit portrays a woman imprisoned for serial killings. Triveni’s Maa Behen places another maternal figure in a macabre situation: a mother calls her estranged adult daughters home because a corpse is lying in her kitchen.

The trend has been gaining momentum over the last few years. In Darlings (2022), Shamshu Ansari (Shefali Shah) assists her daughter (played by Alia Bhatt) in the brutal retaliation against an abusive husband and carries her own violent past. Ajji (2017) follows a frail grandmother who carefully plots revenge against the man who raped her nine-year-old granddaughter.

These are neither supporting turns nor caricatured villains. They are central characters: flawed, furious and fully in command of their stories. The greying character is no longer a sentimental aside. Increasingly, they are the story’s driving force.

Part of the fascination lies in the narrative surprise. Audiences have been conditioned to associate age with passivity or moral authority, not danger. Writer-director Jaspal Singh Sandhu, who created the Vadh franchise, points out that the unexpected nature of the character drives the tension. “When you get something where it’s not expected, it works like a charm. It’s easy to create drama there,” he says, referring to Shambhunath Mishra, the quiet retiree who methodically turns predator into prey.

Triveni believes the disruption itself generates conflict. “An older person as a criminal creates instant tension,” he says. “We don’t associate age with threat or strength, so it surprises us.”

Writer-director-actor Vijay Maurya, whose Mast Mein Rehne Ka (2023) follows two ageing characters who begin breaking into homes simply for the thrill of it, argues that these stories deliberately move older characters away from pity. “In real life, oldies can be quite mad if you just open them up,” he says. “I wanted to push the characters away from sympathy and into adventure.”

The idea that age is just a number is moving beyond rhetoric and into storytelling. Filmmakers say the notion that life ends at 55 no longer reflects how people live or see themselves. Triveni sees a generational shift underway. “The older generation is making a statement: we are not done or down and out yet,” he says.

“Look at social media. You see people in their 60s getting fitter and reinventing themselves. Actors too have stayed relevant. The fuddy-duddy parents we once saw in films are changing.”

That shift is visible on screen. Contemporary cinema is replacing automatic sympathy for elderly characters with agency. The appeal may also lie in the contrast with reality. Off screen, older people often seem to be losing control, whether to automation, online scams or growing dependence. On screen, however, seniors command the narrative. They can be angry, manipulative, even criminal, and still hold the audience’s attention.

For Maurya, that freedom reflects an evolution in storytelling. “The germ of ideas has evolved,” he says. “As a writer, it’s an exciting time because you can go radical with characterizations and people will still connect with them.”

With streaming platforms expanding the range of stories being told, filmmakers expect the shift to continue. Triveni believes changing formats and viewing habits are widening the narrative space for older protagonists. “There’s a cultural shift underway,” he says. “A wider audience means a chance for newer narratives, and those narratives are putting elders at the centre of the story.”

For Sandhu, the real transformation lies in the way characters are now conceived. “The character’s story, not age, is the hero,” he says. “If the actor and the character fit the narrative and entertain you, where does the question of age arise?”

And so, it appears, Hindi cinema is finally letting its elders be fully human — messy, cunning, and occasionally dangerous. They are no longer just waiting for a phone call from their children; they are making the world answer to them.

Actor-screenwriter Aditya Rawal, the son of actor Paresh Rawal and theatre performer Swaroop Sampat, is currently riding high on the recognition coming his way after the release of the web series Daldal, where he plays Sajid and the film Subedaar, where he plays the antagonist, Prince. The 32-year-old shares his perspective on success, family legacy, and the effort required to carve his own path.

“The feeling has been overwhelming. I have never been part of something this big; seeing my work being discussed like this is surreal,” Aditya says of the positive response to his roles.

Speaking of his father’s reaction, Aditya says, “He enjoyed my performance and praised my work. But as it’s said, you have never arrived, so I feel abhi bhi bahut time hain. This character of Prince was my small ode to my father and the antagonistic roles he played back in the ‘90s.”

Addressing the topic of nepotism early on, Aditya adds, “I am my father’s son, and privilege remains. This fact surely gives us access to the industry that other people will not have in the same space.” However, he quickly clarifies his family’s approach to his career. “In our family, we never expected our parents to create a path for us, or for my father to go to town trying to find me work. So I knew I had to put my head down and keep walking.”

Aditya, who co-wrote films like Panipat (2017) with Ashutosh Gowarikar, reveals that he intentionally maintained a low profile early in his career. “I always knew I could write and act both. People always say I made a silent entry in the industry, maine aapne jab tak koi kaam nahin kiya toh uss level ka dhindhora kya pitna,” he adds.

Sharing details of his upcoming works, Aditya also mentions that he is eager to collaborate with his father. “Other than Hansal Mehta’s Gandhi, there are two more projects, one is a film opposite Sanya Malhotra and the other a series. There are also two scripts that I am working on. If all goes well with the first one, I have my father in mind, and we can share the screen for the first time.”

Aditya had written several films before debuting as an actor in Bamfaad (2020).

In the last few years, the actor in Saurabh Shukla had taken a backseat as he helmed his Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia-starrer Jab Khuli Kitaab, and then worked towards its release. Slowly but surely, acting called out to him.

Shukla, who shot Subedaar earlier, is now gearing up to resume the shoot of Shah Rukh Khan’s King, which also features the superstar’s daughter Suhana Khan. “I shot for it [last year], and I will shoot the remaining portions [soon],” he says.

Taking a break from acting to shape his directorial venture meant letting go of the financial security that acting projects offer. But Shukla believes the pay-off is richer. He shares, “From an actor’s perspective, [taking a break] is difficult, it’s also stupid at times. But when I was living it, it was easy. Physically, I cannot be present at two places.”

Last week, he had two releases — while Anil Kapoor’s Subedaar dropped on Prime Video, Jab Khuli Kitaab began streaming on Zee5 — each showing a different facet of his art. Acting, directing, and writing can be too much to handle, but Shukla has too many dreams to fulfil in this lifetime.

“I’m a firm believer that there is only one life. So, I have no plans of saying, ‘I will act in this life, and direct in the next,’” he smiles, adding that writing hones one’s acting. “I always say, ‘If you want to be an actor, please write. Look at paintings, sing, pursue music because it gives you a sense of rhythm. Everything is interrelated.”

Walking into 2026, Vikram Malhotra knew it would be a busy year. The producer is days away from the release of his Anil Kapoor-starrer Subedaar, followed by Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Triptii Dimri’s comedy Maa Behen, and the Kapoor and Vijay Varma-led series Family Business. Putting together projects headlined by stars can be a fulfilling as well as demanding experience. The latter, especially now, when the rising entourage costs of many A-list actors have become a cause for concern for producers.

When asked whether actors should pay their entourage from their pockets, Malhotra was clear about his stance.

“Actors should participate directly or indirectly in a film’s economic benefit and risk. The participation includes everything — from fees, entourage, working hours to the emotional commitment towards a film. To me, demand for a large entourage or disproportionate fee is a message of intent,” he shared.

Many producers have claimed that stars nowadays make unreasonable demands. But Malhotra believes a maker always has the choice to not work with such artistes.

“No actor puts a gun to the producer’s head, forcing them to cast them. I’ve had the good fortune of working with newcomers to superstars, and we’ve had only the best, most reasonable people partners. If a part of the value chain is unreasonable in commercial or non-commercial terms, it’s a choice you exercise [to not work with them]. In my experience, talents that persist with unreasonable demands and behaviour don’t last long. Most of the time, these examples [of producers being burdened by high costs] are self-inflicted. The producers could say no, they didn’t.”

It’s not every day in the industry that a one line idea gets a star to commit to a film. But filmmaker Suresh Triveni tells us that rarity happened when he narrated the idea of Subedaar to Anil Kapoor. “Our man said yes and then asked, ‘Kab banana hai?’” the director recounts the phone call he had with Kapoor.

The Prime Video film, also starring Radhika Madan, tells the story of a former army man (Kapoor) coming to terms with the civilian life. For his protagonist, Triveni drew inspiration from Kapoor’s iconic characters of the ‘80s.

“He is one actor, who has over the period of time, adapted himself beautifully in different roles. But we can never forget Munna from Tezaab (1988) or Mr India (1987). He has a presence, which is cinematic. So that inspired me. And I wanted to write a story of a man of the soil. That’s where it started,” he shares.

And it’s only been a joy ride for him to direct the star, not only for his dedication towards his craft but his hunger as a performer, despite his four-decade long experience in the industry.

“Anil sir does not like to be reminded about his past work. He says, ‘Tell me about today and tomorrow. Don’t tell me about yesterday. And I’m not kidding’,” the director says, adding that he has his lead star’s professionalism to thank for being able to wrap up the film in just over 40 days.

“He is so particular about the details [of the character]. Like, he’s got a book of records where he has actually noted down that what’s his hair growth and moustache growth like. He maintains a diary. His team knows that. That’s the amount of professionalism he brings to a film. Otherwise, I won’t be able to shoot a film in 44 days. It’s impossible. He is not complacent at all.”

Fronting an all-out action film in your 60s can make you think twice. Not if you’re Anil Kapoor. See his work over the past few years, and it’s evident that the senior actor is enjoying this phase of his career—from playing a philandering husband in the light-hearted JugJugg Jeeyo (2022) to essaying the stern Indian Air Force group captain in Fighter. So, why should an action fare be out of bounds? Kapoor has begun his prep for Subedaar, in which he portrays a retired Indian Army officer struggling to come to terms with his civilian life.

Director Suresh Triveni, who previously helmed Tumhari Sulu (2017) and the acclaimed Jalsa (2022), is planning to roll the Prime Video offering in Mumbai on September 15.

A source reveals, “Anil’s character Subedaar Arjun Singh is trying to rebuild his relationship with his grown-up daughter when his family comes under attack. How he turns from a man leading a civilian life into a fighting machine again forms the crux of the story. While the actor recently featured in actioners like The Night Manager [2023], Animal [2023] and Fighter, his characters rarely engaged in combat on screen. Here, it will be exciting to see him attempt high-octane stunts.”

Kapoor’s days are currently divided between hosting the third season of Bigg Boss OTT and prepping for the upcoming film. The actor’s joy is palpable as he gears up to match his on-screen antagonists punch for punch.

He shares, “We’ll hopefully complete shooting this year. Subedaar is strongly based on emotions. If there is action in the film, there is also an emotion behind it. There is prep required for an action drama like this, but when you have a fantastic director like Suresh and a competent team, the prep becomes easier. The most important thing is not to take yourself seriously; just go with the flow and have some fun.”

In a career spanning over 40 years, he has essayed a variety of roles. As the grammar of Hindi movies has undergone a change, have his criteria for choosing roles changed too?

“I choose my projects according to the script, director and producer. I’m a firm believer of good content and the person who has written it. I go with their conviction. Suresh is a writer-director with whom I’m looking forward to collaborating.”