“So much love for an old man?” Kumar asked in a tweet, referring to the number of his Twitter followers. The surprise of this living legend of Hindi cinema over the love received at old age invites thought. Why would a superstar be surprised if thousands want to follow him online? What does it matter if he is gray and not lighting the screen anymore?
Given the general attitude of the public toward aged stars in Bollywood, Kumar’s surprise is not unexpected. In a culture where the old are forgotten sooner than a casual exchange of greeting, it is indeed a great compliment to be followed by a large number of fans, even if that number is tame before the 1.5 million plus followers of popular, much younger stars like Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra. And why wouldn’t readers be put to thinking who’s following a yesteryear star in a cinema like Bollywood which has been unceasingly obsessed with young age, romance, and unwrinkled flesh.
With no important roles for the senior/aged actors, Bollywood unofficially states “Thank you and get out!” to old faces that are not beautiful in the sense the superficial definition of beauty—read “sex appeal”—has laid out for audiences. Stars like Kumar did use to have strong roles in films even in their ripe age, acting in films like Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). But such films never made their characters attractive enough for the young audiences—those who would remember and want to see them again and again in more films. There always were young heroes and heroines to outshine the old characters, often included as social obstacles in the love-life of the younger generation or leading the young. The focus always is on youth, love, and marriage.
The failure of Bollywood in projecting the aged, the elderly, has been so obtrusive that even many famous actors from the 80s have long been forgotten, let alone given a chance to star as leads in a film. In fact, Bollywood did not and does not make films with aged characters in lead. The beauty of aging in its many forms has been an unexplored territory for Hindi cinema. Romance, action, and marriage have occupied Bollywood helplessly. Today, we may say the cinema has become a copycat industry in nearly all aspects of filmmaking, not to mention that the quality music is lost as well.
It is only in cases of a troubled situation that an old actor’s name is given room in Indian media, as happened last year in case of Raj Kiran, who was found in a mental asylum in the US by actor Rishi Kapoor. But very few hear about the leading female star Nimmi from the 1950s Bollywood, who is the last of her caliber of actresses from that era (she starred opposite Dilip Kumar in a number of films). Even big names from the 60s and 70s like Manoj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Nanda, and Mumtaz are no less than dead for Indian media and Bollywood seems to have little reminiscence of these gems.
Against the backdrop of obliviousness for the aged, only some stars of the 80s are still able to live on in news and media reports, mainly due to being able to find room in one or more TV shows, or in a few ads. In such a place, which, as Yeats would call, is not a country for an old man, Dilip Kumar is indeed lucky to find thousands of followers in a few weeks.
