Chitrangda Singh on whether female actors face pressure to ‘not age’: It exists for everyone, films are a visual medium

Actor Chitrangda Singh, whose casting opposite Salman Khan in Battle of Galwan is being hailed, talks about the pressure actors face to keep looking young.

Actors ageing- in both real and reel life- has always been up for a debate. Male actors continue to romance female actors much younger to them in films. Do female actors then feel the pressure to stop ageing off screen too, then?

Chitrangda Singh

Chitrangda Singh, for starters, continues to look the same as she did in the initial years of her career. And now, fans are hailing the age-appropriate casting in Battle of Galwan, in which she stars with Salman Khan. Talking about whether female actors indeed are expected to keep looking young any way they can, she says, “It exists for everybody. All said and done, it’s a visual medium. If you are playing a 70-year-old, you should look like it, and if you want to be cast as a 30-year-old, you have to be able to pull it off. That’s a practical way of looking at it.”

She calls it justified on the part of makers, “It’s fair for producers to think so. It goes for male actors as well. Akki (Akshay Kumar) works on his fitness, watches what he eats. Of course there is more flexibility when a male actor’s character is written, as opposed to a woman’s character. I don’t think there’s any bias there. They drive the film, they drive the market, bring the money, there is so much more to it. Having said that, Kareena (Kapoor Khan) is doing amazing work.”

Reflecting on the change from the earlier times to now when female actors are free from a ‘shelf life’, she continues, “The times have changed so much. Vidya (Balan) is doing so much work. All these actors still hold so much screen presence, they are all getting cast so much. Roles are being written for them. As for the pressure to look a certain way, look at Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, everybody is trying (to look young), you have to. At the end of the day, you are selling a story and it needs to be believable. Of course, actors face pressure in everything.”