Seven cross-generational Bollywood movie romances

Bollywood is no stranger to older men romancing younger heroines on the big screen, but it usually entails the hero playing characters of comparable age.

One of this month’s big Bollywood releases, De De Pyaar De, has bucked that trend and sees Ajay Devgn play a divorced 50-year-old man who starts dating a 26-year-old woman. Although they have been few and far between, this isn’t the first time Bollywood has explored a romance between couples of differing ages.

Eastern Eye looks back at films where an age gap didn’t get in the way of a romance.

Doosra Aadmi (1977): A movie that was perhaps ahead of its time has been unfairly forgotten. Raakhee plays a woman who is left heartbroken after her boyfriend (Shashi Kapoor) dies and her character becomes a recluse. Years later, she returns to work and starts to find similarities between the younger man played by Rishi Kapoor, and starts to feel something again.

Ek Nai Paheli (1984): The Hindi language remake of Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal revolves around a headstrong young man (Kamal Haasan) who finds love in the arms of an older woman (Hema Malini). Later it turns out that a young woman (Padmini Kolhapure), who is her daughter, is in love with a much older widower (Raaj Kumar) who turns out to be the young man’s father.

Lamhe (1991): One of the most inventive love triangles ever made in Hindi cinema sees Anil Kapoor torn between the memory of an older woman he loved, and the identical looking daughter decades later. The Yash Chopra classic in effect had two cross-generational romances with Sridevi playing the older woman in love with someone else, and then decades later, the orphaned daughter who melts the cold heart of an older man.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001): The iconic story of close friends had multiple romantic tracks including Akshaye Khanna playing a young man who is in love with an older woman, played wonderfully well by Dimple Kapadia. It shows a deep emotional connection between two individuals, which doesn’t quite culminate in them getting together.

Leela (2002): Dimple Kapadia plays a married professor who goes to teach in America and rediscovers herself after striking up a relationship with a young student. The story of a middle-aged woman getting into a complicated relationship with her much younger student was daring and had featured sensual scenes.

Cheeni Kum (2007): The romantic comedy sees Amitabh Bachchan (above) play a 64-year-old chef who is a confirmed bachelor who then finds love when a feisty 34-year-old, played by Tabu, walks into his life. What follows is a May to December romance, which includes dealing with those who object to their age gap.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016): The musical romance saw Ranbir Kapoor playing a heartbroken young man who rebounds into the arms of a much older woman played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The chemistry between the two in the fleeting passion-filled romance is electric and generated sparks on the big screen.