The Ageless Hero Syndrome in Indian Cinema

 

Honey Rose, who is  32 years old younger than Balakrishna plays his mother in Veera Simha Reddy. Sruthi Hassan, who is 26 years old younger than Balakrishna plays his love interest in the same movie. This is the Ageless Hero Syndrome in Indian cinema.

Vadivukarasi is 12 years younger than Rajinikanth. And she plays his mother in Sivaji the Boss.

In Arunachalam, Vadivukarasi plays Rajinikanth's evil grandmother.

Shriya Saran is 32 years younger than Rajinikanth and she plays his love interest in Sivaji the Boss.

Ravi Teja is paired with Sreeleela in Dhamaka despite being 34 years older than her.

And this is what Tollywood has done to Vijayakanth's cult classic Ramana. Shriya, who is 27 years younger than Chiranjeevi plays his pair. 

The 2024 addition to Indian cinema's Ageless Hero Syndrome is Mahesh Babu and Sreeleela with 26 years age gap.

In Guntur Kaaram, Ramya Krishnan who is just five years older than Mahesh Babu played his mom. In the bilingual make Naani (SJ Suryah's New), Mahesh Babu and Ramya Krishnan did a steamy song.

One might argue that MB looks young despite his age (in fact he looks better now) and that Ramya Krishnan has aged. So, it would look incongruent when she's paired with MB.

What's this then? And if you read from the beginning, the heroes are evidently looking much older than their pairs. But that didn't stop them from acting with women who look like their daughters. If that's fine, then Ramya Krishnan acting as MB's pair should be fine too. 

At the heart of this Ageless Hero Syndrome is a set template and no deviation from it. Dhanush, who is  far younger than these heroes played an elderly man with an adult son in Asuran. Dhanush is paired with Manju Warrier who is five years his senior. He experimented and quite frankly, succeeded. Mass heroes have this set template with them being ageless despite hitting their late 40s and 50s, acting with actresses that are kept on replaced by younger ones. That's the issue, not market, not age, not aged countenance. And their fans worship their ageless stature. They even get angry when Rajini's grandsons call him grandfather while calling Trisha aunty.

This is 47 years old Sangeetha who used to play Vijay's pair.. She did not age a day. For women it's not about looks, it's about age and marital status. While R. Madhavan and Shahrukh Khan entered the film industry after marriage, actresses' career ends with marriage. Moreover, the predominantly male audience salivate for young actresses. Thulasi Nair was 15 when she did Kadal. Lakshmi Menon and Krithi Shetty were 16 when they debuted.