Tabu, who will play a star-crossed lover in Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, opened up about ageism and sexism in the industry in an interview with News 18. Unlike her male counterparts, Tabu said she wouldn’t want to play a 30-year-old woman on-screen. Even if offers come her way, she wouldn’t accept them. Tabu told News 18, “I would refuse those parts. I don’t think that I’ll be open to playing a 30-year-old anymore. I’ve no option but to embrace my age.” In the film, Tabu’s younger version will be played by Saiee M Manjrekar. Sharing her ideas about age-appropriate casting, Tabu said, “Yeh sab cheezein pehle bhi toh hota tha jab de-aging ka concept nahi tha (When there was not de-aging concept, we have seen such casting). We saw different actors playing younger selves of the protagonists. Once they grew up, they became Dharmendra or Dilip Kumar. I think that with this film, we’re continuing that tradition.”
When director Neeraj Pandey first disclosed to Tabu that another actor would play her younger version, Tabu said, “My first question to Neeraj (Pandey; director) was, what about the younger part? When he told me that there’s a different set of actors to do that, I was like, fine. Sometimes, de-aging actors can look gimmicky especially if the audience knows how old they are.”
Tabu continued, “They’ve seen how we look at present. But all of it depends on the kind of film and the context. Some films can carry off older actors playing younger roles well because it isn’t jarring for the audience. But we didn’t require that in Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha and it worked better that way.”
Directed by, Neeraj Pandey, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha also features Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar and Shantanu Maheshwari in pivotal roles. Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha is the tenth film of Ajay Devgn and Tabu together. The actors have worked together in films like Golmaal Again, De De Pyaar De, Vijaypath, Haqeeqat, Vijaypath, Thakshak, Bholaa and the Drishyam series of films, to name a few.
