Genelia D’Souza is making her return to the big screen in Aamir Khan’s forthcoming film, Sitaare Zameen Par, where she plays his on-screen wife. Her casting was met with excitement. She criticized Bollywood for its bias against married actresses and also mentioned that she auditioned multiple times for the part in Aamir Khan’s film.
During an interview, Genelia expressed that while many congratulated her on getting to work with Aamir, few acknowledged that she earned the role through talent and hard work. She stated, “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.”
She then highlighted the industry’s tendency to sideline married actresses, adding, “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.”
Aamir Khan has recently discussed his age difference with Genelia for the movie. He said, “We have the advantage of VFX now. Earlier, if I had to play an 18-year-old, I had to rely on prosthetics — like Anil Kapoor did in Eeshwar (1989), when he played an 80-year-old. Today, you can look 80 or 40 or 20 on screen with seamless visual effects. So, age is no longer a barrier for actors.”
Sitaare Zameen Par is the Hindi adaptation of the Spanish film Campeones and a spiritual sequel to Taare Zameen Par. Genelia and Aamir are portraying characters in their early 40s. The film is set to be released in theaters on June 20.