Recently, when I asked Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest superstar of them all, if he is open to playing Ratan Tata on screen, he replied, “Sure, why not? But would anyone be willing to cast me in the lead any more? All my roles these days are supporting ones, and I’m more than happy doing them.”
The 60-plus superstars seem to be in a state of transition: Not quite willing to abdicate the throne but happy to be playing off-lead parts.
Jackie Shroff has been doing it for years. He began doing what are euphemistically known as ‘character roles’ long ago, while his colleague Anil Kapoor continued to insist on lead parts—until Sandeep Vanga’s Animal, where Kapoor reluctantly agreed to play Ranbir Kapoor’s father.
Says Jackie, “Accepting my age has never been a problem. Even when I was doing leads, I willingly played Anil Kapoor’s elder brother in Ram Lakhan when I am actually a few years younger.”
Bobby Deol has smoothly transitioned from leading man to villain at age 50, but his elder brother Sunny Deol has no such plans. He insists his role as Hanuman is not a supporting one, as there are no supporting characters in the Ramayan.
Likewise, Nagarjuna feels his role in Coolie and the recent Kuberaa are not non-leads. “No one can say I am a supporting actor in these films. I was one of the two leads in Kuberaa. In Coolie, I am the main antagonist with a very powerful role. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
Shatrughan Sinha, who played a supporting role to Tamil star Suriya way back in 2010, pooh-poohs the star hierarchy. “First lead, second lead, supporting, non-supporting… all this is relative and speculative. In Mrs Brown, Judi Dench was seen for only fifteen minutes. The film is remembered for her. At the beginning of my career, I had a very small role in the Sanjeev Kumar starrer Khilona. But people still remember me for it. As for playing the lead in contemporary cinema, those demarcations are not there any more. There are either good roles or bad ones. Those insisting on playing loverboy roles at 60 and 65 need to examine the reality.”