Rani Mukerji values characters over age significance

Bollywood star Rani Mukerji on Sunday said audience has helped her break the “ageism barrier”, enabling her to play a wide variety of characters.
Speaking at an in-conversation session, titled ‘Delivering Compelling Performances’, during the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here, the actor said an artiste’s age should not matter while essaying a role.
“My audience has loved me and accepted me over the years. They have helped me to break the ageism barrier and I will promise that I will work till I’m 80. I don’t think an actor should be judged by their age.
“It’s only because our cinema is known as popular cinema and you want to see young people on screen all the time because that’s what compels the youth to kind of go and watch,” Mukerji said.
It is also important for artists to not be “delusional” and believe that they are always going to be young, she added.
“You can be young at heart, but to accept your age and to accept roles that suit your age is also important for the audience to accept you. So, it has always been a conscious decision of mine to be able to give my audience something that will be palpable for them as well.”
It is important to accept “who you are, what you are, how you’re aging, look after yourself and look good for the audience”, the actor said.
“My entire life’s focus is to look like how I used to look 20 years ago, and keep looking like this all my life. And have a good and healthy lifestyle and maintain it because when the audience pays money to come and see your work, they also want to see a nice looking face.
“They don’t want to see your face that’s tired and so I also take intervals and do my work, because the audience has kept me going for the last 27 years. And I’m hoping that the same audience keeps me going for the next 27.”
Even in her 20s, Mukerji said, she never hesitated in playing a mother on screen,
“I played a mother in my third film itself, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, and I continued playing mother roles. In ‘Ta Ra Rum Pum’, I played a mother of two children. “So I think continuously I’ve tried to not give importance to the age factor of the character. And I’ve tried to do justice with the role, so that when the audience is watching me on screen, they don’t think of Rani Mukerji as who I am.
But they actually see my character and they believe that I’m that character.”