Genelia D'Souza asks why film industry can't offer her a role like Sitaare Zameen Par: ‘They think I'm married so I don't need this character'
Genelia D'Souza will be next seen as Aamir Khan's wife in RS Prasanna's coming-of-age sports comedy Sitaare Zameen Par, slated to release in cinemas on June 20. In a recent interview, Genelia revealed she auditioned thrice for the part, but didn't mind it because she wanted to do a layered role like Sunita, her character in the film.
'When people got to know I'm doing Sitaare Zameen Par, everybody said, 'Oh my god! So lucky! You're doing an Aamir Khan film!' I said of course, that's Aamir sir's bigness that he saw something in me. Of course, he made me audition. But you could also do that, right? You could also offer me a role,' said Genelia in an interview with Filmymantra Media.
She continued, 'But you go as per the norms. Maybe you think I'm married so I don't need this character. I just feel filmmaking has changed, and so should our mentality. It's very important that if you want a character of a certain age, you should cast someone of that age. When we cast an actor who's much younger than the character I played, they can't understand the little-little things of it. It's important to cast right. And I hope opportunities go everyone's way.'
Interestingly, Genelia D'Souza's first film with Aamir Khan Productions was Abbas Tyrewala's 2008 cult romantic comedy Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, in which she was cast opposite Aamir's nephew Imran Khan in his debut film. Aamir recently opened up on casting Genelia in an interview with SCREEN. 'That was a long time ago. And ab Imran bhi kafi meri age ka ho gaya hai (Now Imran is also quite close to my age),' Aamir quipped.
'That thought did come to me, but in the film, we're both playing characters in the age group of early 40s. She's around that age. I'm 60, but in today's day and age, we have the advantage of VFX,' reasoned Aamir. He added that casting Genelia was director RS Prasanna's idea.
In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Prasanna claimed that Genelia is hugely popular in the South, from where he hails. 'Working with Genelia has been such a pleasure. She's full of positive energy. She's a great actor, and we love her in the South! Apparently, she's done all languages — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and now, Marathi, obviously,' pointed out Prasanna.
Also Read — Aamir Khan says he was asked to do an action film after Laal Singh Chaddha failure: 'I had many offers, but story of Sitaare Zameen Par entered my bloodstream'
Genelia D'Souza made her debut with the Bollywood film Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003. Her first Tamil film was Boys in 2003, first Telugu movie was Satyam the next year, Kannada film debut was Satya My Love in 2008, and maiden Malayalam movie was Urumi in 2011. She made a full-fledged acting debut in Marathi with her husband Riteish Deshmukh's 2022 directorial debut Ved.
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