There is no age bar in Bollywood, says Jackie

Mumbai: Even though actors beyond 40 years of age are still reigning in Bollywood, actor Jackie Shroff, who has been missing from the fray, says the trend shows there is no age bar for actors.

In a career spanning more than two decades, Jackie gave hits like `Hero`, `Andar Bahar`, `Karma`, `Ram Lakhan`, `Parinda`, `Khalnayak`, `Tridev`, `Agni Sakshi`, `Rangeela` and `Devdas`. "It shows that there is no age bar in Bollywood. It is a good trend. The actors are really doing well. It is a good thing that the actors are getting varied roles to play at this age. Even look at Amitabh Bachchan, he is 68 and look how his career is rocking," 51-year-old Jackie told PTI in an interview. "In Bollywood, big banners have there groups and camps whom they cast. I have never believed in the theory of groups or camps I have worked with all kind of actors - Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri, Sridevi and others," Jackie said. However, nowadays, the veteran actor is seen more in films from the south. "I feel I belong to small banners, which are also now growing. Renowned productions like UTV and Reliance are now backing small budget films. There is a change. Also, people are looking for new and innovative films," he said. Ask him what changes he has witnessed in Bollywood, Jackie says, "Today you just put movies in thousand theatres and in three days you get money and forget about it. Two decades back films used to run for 75 weeks or 100 weeks. The movie becoming platinum jubilee, golden jubilee was a big thing now if a film is houseful for three days...it is a big thing." PTI