Himalayan News Service

Mumbai:

After ‘Baghban’ and ‘Veer-Zara’, Amitabh and Hema seem to be the hottest post-mid-age couple in Bollywood.

The Big B and the ‘Dream Girl’ will soon be seen co-starring in Ravi Chopra’s ‘Babul’ — where the two will cross swords as a couple ideologically divided on the issue of their daughter-in-law’s remarriage. But the best is yet to come — the Chopras are also set to remake Clint Eastwood’s ‘The Bridges Of Madison County’, in which Eastwood had acted as the dashing drifter who had swept off Meryl Streep — a lonely housewife — for a brief affair. Some years ago, Mahesh Bhatt had wanted to make the same film with Bachchan in the lead. The actor had shot down the proposal then. However, the Big B now seems to be willing to enjoy the comforts of an autumnal companionship with Hema Malini.

Until quite recently, films about mid-age couples were sporadic and extremely niche-driven. The 1970s saw Ravi Tandon’s ‘Zindagi’ with Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha playing a couple separated by uncaring offspring. The theme extended into the 1980s with ‘Avtaar’ starring Rajesh Khanna and Shabana Azmi. But ‘Baghban’ seems to have triggered off a whole new chain of Bachchan-starrers about old couples re-discovering the virtues of companionship during their twilight years. While Big B is seen in an intimate role with Sharmila Tagore in Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Viruddh’, his pairing with the ‘Dream Girl’ seems to have hit an all-time high. Says Bachchan: “It’s always a pleasure to work with Hemaji. She is after all, an exquisitely beautiful woman. And we’re family friends. Her daughter Esha and Abhishek are colleagues and friends. “I’d like to believe that some of the warmth we share in real life spills over onscreen. We had done some successful films in our heydays. I enjoyed working with Hemaji in the past. But yes, there is nothing like the chemistry that we seem to be sharing after ‘Baghban’.”