Actress Isha Koppikar has been a part of several films like Darna Mana Hai, Pinjar, LOC Kargil, Krishna Cottage and Don among others. In films like Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat and Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya, she had to romance Suniel Shetty and Govinda respectively. Both actors were much older than she was and she had just started in the industry. In a recent chat, Isha said that romancing older actors felt uncomfortable and cringy.
Speaking to Siddharth Kannan, Isha said, “You do feel uncomfortable when you work with someone 30 or 20 years older than you. I felt uncomfortable when I was working with elderly heroes. You don’t get the feeling like you are hugging your partner or lover, you feel like you are hugging your father. I used to feel that. I was new, I thought this was the norm.”
“You are an actor; you focus on your part and forget they are elderly. You wouldn’t feel cringe with everyone, some of them had maintained themselves very well and wouldn’t look their age, but some obviously had that air and demeanour of a senior, due to age and experience in the industry,” Isha added.
Isha said that the age gap still exists in the industry and expressed her dissatisfaction about the fact that once an actress crosses the age of 35, she plays the mother of a 50-year-old hero, but he will still romance a 25-year-old actress on screen.
Isha said, “They should understand what they look like and accordingly play the part. I hope this changes, because the audience is not foolish. I have seen them in theatres saying, ‘Ye kitna buddha lag raha hai, ghar pe baith, apni beti ki umar ki ladki saath romance kar raha hai.’ They say this bluntly, which is the truth. Because of social media, everyone knows this!”
In the same conversation, Isha also recalled her casting couch experience. Isha said, “I was 18 when a secretary and an actor approached me for casting couch. They told me that to get work, you have to be ‘friendly’ with actors. I am very friendly, but what does ‘friendly’ mean? I am so friendly that Ekta Kapoor once told me to have some attitude.”
Isha Koppikar also recounted an incident when an A-list actor asked her to meet him alone. “When I was 23, one actor asked me to meet him alone, without my driver or anyone else, because there were rumours about him being involved with other actresses. He said, ‘There are already controversies about me, and the staff spreads rumours.’ But I refused and told him that I couldn’t come alone. He was an A-list actor from the Hindi film industry,’ she said.
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