Why’s Angelina Jolie luckier than Madhuri Dixit?

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar may have had to shelve his film Heroine after lead actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan announced her pregnancy, but it’s not stopping filmmakers from approaching the actor for their films scheduled in the next year.

Clearly an indication that motherhood doesn’t dent an actress’s career in Bollywood. Malaika Arora Khan continues to reign as the item queen. Kajol continues to do films, as does Chitrangda Singh. Sreedevi’s making a comeback, Madhuri Dixit Nene did too a few years back.

Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor are the others coming back. Bollywood’s clearly given a green signal to it’s mommies! But while trade analysts also agree that the actress’ motherhood or marriage have no impact on their careers, what can not be over looked are the kind of roles coming their way.

Kajol, for instance has only played a mother in almost all her films post motherhood, as has Dixit. Though there’s no denying that Singh is an exception, she seems to be the only one who’s doing roles not reflective of her being a mother at all.

According to trade analyst Bharti Pradhan, as long as the actress is convincing on screen, motherhood or not makes no difference at all, so it’s incorrect to say that Bollywood’s unfair to actresses. Trade analyst Komal Nahta agrees.

“As long as the actress is in top form she can continue playing the leads and be accepted too,” he says. “Even way back in ‘70s Sharmila Tagore was a mom when she did Aradhana and several other films,” points out Bharti.

Interestingly however, she does agree that most actresses only marry when they are past their peak period or are at their peak already. Not many actresses would marry or have kids if they have several more years to stay there.

Explaining this a veteran producer says, “Whether we accept it or not, motherhood does change the kind of roles for an actress. So it’s okay if she plays a role that suits her, but imagine them playing teeny boppers. Filmmakers are wary about approaching an actress for an out and out romantic film if she’s a mom  The actresses also know that the choice of roles do get limited, so how can they call it fair.”

Another filmmaker agrees. “Angelina Jolie doing a Salt is fair, Kajol playing mom in all her films? How is that the same? Besides, actresses here only do roles that would suit their age,” he quips. But Bharti reasons it with the growth of an actor. “Once you reach a certain level as an actor why would you walk that way again.” A yesteryear actor shares, “Heroines anyways have a shorter shelf life but as long as they are on the shelf and fit, then why not? It’s only a matter of repackaging!”