Working with female performers who are significantly younger than him has long been a tradition for Salman Khan. He mentioned working in movies with Sonakshi Sinha, Asin, and Kareena Kapoor roughly ten years ago.
It is a well-known fact that female performers in Indian film industry have shorter careers since they are either expected to give up their jobs after getting married or they are replaced with much younger actors. The male actors have continued to be box office draws for years. While promoting his film Dabangg, Salman Khan was ambushed by a journalist and asked about this trend in the industry.
Sonakshi Sinha, the daughter of Shatrughan Sinha, made her acting debut in the 2012 movie. Salman was over 45 years old at the time, while Sonakshi was in her early 20s. Salman was asked about his thoughts on Sonakshi calling him “Salman uncle” when she was little during an interview with Headlines Today.
She no longer calls me anything since Salman said, “These days, she doesn’t know what to call me.” Salman claimed that he considers the age gap between his co-stars, which is why he avoided working with Kareena Kapoor for so long. Sonakshi was 16 to 17 when I last saw her. I’ve seen Kareena when she was nine years old. We didn’t collaborate for a very long period because of this. She has an older sister with whom I had previously worked, but suddenly I’ve seen a nine-year-old child…
When asked why he doesn’t work with actors his own age, he responded that it is always better for the movie business if new faces come in and listed a number of his former co-stars who were still in production at the moment. Although producers weren’t offering him the roles Shilpa Shetty or Madhuri Dixit would play in, he claimed that he had no objections to doing so again because the public would probably not be interested in seeing such movies. Salman responded, “That has to do with them, I’ve got nothing to do with this,” when told that the majority of heroes are also producers.
Salman’s next appearance will be in the movie Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, in which he co-stars with Pooja Hegde, who is 25 years Salman’s junior.
