Remember how actress Shefali Shah was cast as Akshay Kumar’s mother in Waqt: The Race Against Time in 2005 despite being five years younger to him? Shefali was 32 and Akshay was 37 years old back then. Cut to 2022, such casting continues to happen in Bollywood and Aamir Khan’s latest release film, Laal Singh Chaddha is one such example.
A tweet about casting actress Mona Singh in the Aamir-starrer caught our attention on Twitter this afternoon.
The tweet posted by a Twitter user, @ThePapaShark_, talks about how Aamir Khan, who is 16 years older than Mona Singh, played the role of her son in Laal Singh Chaddha. While Aamir is 57, Mona is 41 years old.
Check out the tweet here:
In Laal Singh Chaddha, Mona Singh as Laal’s mother shared screen space with both child actor Ahmad Ibn Umar and Aamir Khan. However, Mona’s role as Aamir’s on-screen mom invited a backlash during its release and it looks like this debate isn’t planning to be buried anytime now.
Here’s how other netizens are seeing it:
Some Twitter users felt otherwise.
One Twitter user shared a trivia about casting Sally Field as Tom Hanks’ mother in the original, Forrest Gump.
Mona Singh had earlier defended her role in Laal Singh Chaddha, saying, “I am not playing Aamir Khan’s mother, I am playing Laal’s mother…It’s not an Aamir Khan biopic.” Check out her full statement.
“There was the whole thing [ debate] going on. I didn’t want to talk about it before because I wanted people to see the movie. And I am an actor. I am not playing Aamir Khan’s mother, I am playing Laal’s mother. As Laal ages, I age in the movie. It is not an Aamir Khan biopic where he is 57 and I am 40 and playing a mother,” Mona told India Today.
According to Pinkvilla, Aamir Khan also spoke about Mona Singh being cast as his on-screen mother in the film. During an interaction with reporters, Aamir had said, “I want to ask you a question that as an actor, as a creative person, if I’m looking 103, which I’m supposed to, why is my age inappropriate to play the role? Just because I am 57. What is the logic? Age specific kya hota hai actor ke liye? Actor ka toh yeh kamaal hota hai ke woh kuch bi age ka ho aur kuch bi age lage. Kya baat kar rahe ho aap log? Yeh toh Mona Singh ka kamaal hai.”
What is your opinion about this whole debate?
