The industry is male-dominated, it’s bizarre that a 50 plus star acts opposite a 19-year-old, says Dia Mirza

New Delhi: Actress Dia Mirza has never feared speaking her mind and is always upfront on issues. In a recent interview, the ‘Sanju’ actress commented on the “bizarre” trend of casting older men opposite younger actresses.

In an interview with ETimes, when asked how older actors still get to play lead while the same is not the case with older women actresses, Dia Mirza said, “I hope that this expression of female actors allows them to play the leading part even when they are older. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that stories are not written for the female older characters as much as the male ones. It is even more unfortunate to see an older man playing younger parts.”

Deliberating on her point she said that the “idea of beauty” is linked to “youthfulness”. Thus, there is large interest in “consuming younger faces”. However, actress Neena Gupta, Mirza said, is an aberration to this.

“The idea of beauty is always associated with youthfulness. I think that is why there is a large interest in consuming younger faces. An aberration to this would be an actress like Neena Gupta ji. She literally has said it out loud more than once, ‘I am an actor. I love my job. Please cast me.’ Thankfully, some interesting filmmakers decided to cast her in lead parts that were defeating her age. But there are a lot of actresses in their middle ages who are struggling and aren’t being cast because no stories are being written for them,” she added.

“The industry is male-dominated. Older men like to be cast opposite younger women to extend their own shelf life. It is bizarre that a 50 plus something actor is acting opposite a 19-year-old actress,” Dia Mirza, who was last seen in ‘Thappad’ quipped.

Besides being an actress, Dia Mirza is also a producer, social worker and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador.