Bhumika Chawla calls it unfortunate as shelf life for female actors still exists: ‘Hero is still playing hero’

In Bollywood, Bhumika Chawla became a household name in 2003 with the blockbuster hit Tere Naam directed by Satish Kaushik. The tragic love story with Salman Khan marked the actor’s Hindi debut. She had already made her acting debut with the Telugu film Yuvakudu in 2000. However, after the film, the projects Bhumika did in Hindi did not become as popular as her first ones. She continued to work in the south film industries in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages. Recently, the actor shared there is still ageism towards female actors and that they stop getting good roles once they get older. (Also read: Bhumika Chawla: Even after spending 23 years in the film industry, I still feel like a beginner)

In Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, Bhumika has reunited with her Tere Naam co-star Salman. But she is not acting opposite him, Pooja Hegde is. Bhumika essays the role of Pooja’s sister-in-law in the family entertainer. Directed by Farhad Samji, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan was released on April 21 on the occasion of Eid. The Hindi film, loosely adapted from the Tamil film Veeram (2014), has earned ₹10.17 crore nett on its first Monday, taking its overall collections to ₹78.34 crore nett.

Speaking to Siddharth Kannan, Bhumika revealed, “Unfortunately, there is a shelf life for actresses. I don’t know why because I feel makers aren’t able to view them that way. Now that Netflix is here, Amazon [web] series are coming, content driven films and web series have good work for senior actresses, [in] central roles. But in a commercial mass film has the same system even today. Hero is still playing hero and the female lead has gone backward.”

She added, “The change will have to come from the industry. The audience can’t do that. If we change something, then the audience will accept it. If we don’t change it then how will they accept it?”

Bhumika was last seen in the Tamil thriller Kannai Nambathey in which she had a double role. In 2022, she appeared in the Hindi film Operation Romeo starring Sidhant Gupta and Vedika Pinto. The actor was also part of the Telugu films Sita Ramam and Butterfly in supporting roles.