In the last few months, we've seen one too many films where the male lead has been replaced by much younger actors.
Now, one actor replacing another is hardly news in Bollywood. It happens quite often. But what we don't get is them being replaced by actors who are over a decade or two younger than them.
To begin with, we told you how Tiger Shroff is replacing Aamir Khan in the Indo-China film Kung Fu Yoga (Tiger in Aamir's shoes, June 22).
First, there was news that Aamir was part of the project, then came news that Saif Ali Khan had also been approached. Now, these two actors are somewhat in the same age bracket. So we can imagine one replacing the other.
But Tiger, at 25, is exactly half of Aamir's age who turned 50 this year. However, we have a sneaking suspicion its Mr. Perfectionist who suggested Tigers name.
The PK actor is great friends with Tigers dad Jackie. In fact, Aamir has mentored and supported Tiger greatly. He even unveiled Tigers debut film Heropanti's trailer and introduced him to the media and audiences.
So, knowing the script, he might have thought that Tiger is perfect for the film.
Another example is that of Saif Ali Khan and Fawad Khan. Saif was the original choice for Reema Kagti's Mr Chaalu but his high asking price did not go down well with producer Farhan Akhtar. Now, it seems that Fawad, who is 11 years younger than Saif, has been cast in the film.
And lets not forget, Varun Dhawan replaced Salman Khan in Karan Johar's Shuddhi (Varun, Alia in Shuddhi, May 20). Varun looks up to Salman and has grown up on his films so replacing him in a film is a big, big deal for him. For those keeping score, Salman is 49 and Varun at 28 is 21 years his junior.
Of course, Karan would have had to make changes to the script to do justice to Varun's persona.
Only in Bollywood can actors with such distinct personalities and such a huge age gap be replaced with each other.