Eid with Sikandar: Salman Khan’s flippant age-gap remark on Rashmika Mandanna steals the spotlight

Dubai: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has long mastered the art of using flippancy as a shield—especially when it comes to dodging serious questions.

So it was no surprise when, at the trailer launch of his new film Sikandar earlier this week in Mumbai, the 59-year-old superstar breezily brushed off criticism about the glaring 31-year age gap between him and his 28-year-old co-star, Rashmika Mandanna. And keeping with Bollywood's time-worn tradition of aging male superstars romancing much-younger women on screen, Salman's upcoming Eid release Sikandar doesn’t stray from the formula—it doubles down on it.

But what was Salman’s response when a brave journalist from India dared to question the age gap between bhai, meaning brother as he's called by his legion of beloved fans, and his co-star?

With the swagger only a 59-year-old man romancing a 28-year-old can muster, he said: “Heroine ko problem nahi hai, heroine ke papa ko bhi nahi… jab unki beti hogi, uske sath bhi kaam karenge. Mummy ki permission mil jaayegi.”
Translation: If the heroine and her dad are cool with it, why are you getting worked up? And hey, when she has a daughter, I’ll romance her too—mummy will sign off, no worries.

All the while, Rashmika, the said heroine, stood beside him, smiling coyly—offering no comment, just a polite nod and a picture-perfect grin, as if brushing past the fact that her onscreen love interest just made a joke about working with her unborn child. Because in Bollywood, awkward generational creepiness is best met with silence and a smile.

And, nothing screams progressive storytelling like casually announcing your intent to co-star with three generations of the same family. Romantic lead today, creepy uncle tomorrow?

It's clear that only in Salman’s cinematic universe does generational romance pass as a punchline. And let’s be honest, it’s not just about him. This is a full-blown Bollywood epidemic. The industry has a long-standing, almost pathological obsession with casting aging male superstars opposite women young enough to be their daughters, while actresses over 35 are either quietly shown the door or handed a sari and cast as someone’s long-suffering mother.

Shah Rukh Khan, 58, romanced 37-year-old Deepika Padukone (again) in Jawan. Akshay Kumar, 56, has shared the screen with 26-year-old Manushi Chhillar in Samrat Prithviraj and 28-year-old Nupur Sanon in music videos. Aamir Khan, 59, starred opposite Kareena Kapoor in Laal Singh Chaddha—she’s nearly 15 years younger, and yet even she was age-shamed for playing a mother on screen.

Meanwhile, female stars such as Rani Mukerji, Sushmita Sen, Tabu, and even Madhuri Dixit have to claw their way into roles that don’t revolve around being someone’s emotional anchor or maternal figure. Men get slow-motion entries; women get flashbacks and backstories.

In this universe, aging men are called “evergreen.” Aging women are called “too old for lead roles.” See the double standard?

The problem isn’t that Salman looks his age—it’s that he insists on pretending age doesn’t matter at all… especially when it comes to love interests. It’s not edgy, it’s exhausting.

To be clear, nobody’s trolling Salman for aging. The man has survived decades in the industry. Aging is natural. What’s unnatural is acting like it’s completely fine—empowering, even—for a man pushing 60 to keep romancing women young enough to be his daughter, while women over 35 are quietly ushered into "mum” territory.

But why should Salman care? He’s been playing the same slow-mo-walking, leather-jacketed, tight jeans, and silver bracelet-wearing savior since India got 3G.

What’s truly fascinating is how unbothered he is. Not defensive—just dismissive.

He doesn’t seem to grasp that this isn’t just about him. It’s about the deeper, boring old Bollywood problem: the erasure of aging women and the glorification of eternal male youth.

So yes, Salman Khan may be playing Sikandar on screen—but off screen too, he’s clearly an emperor when it comes to dodging uncomfortable questions. Crown him the undisputed king of flippant deflection and foot-in-mouth moments. Plus, let's not forget, this isn’t his first verbal faux pas. In the past, he casually likened the physical exhaustion of filming Sultan to feeling “like a raped woman”—a statement so staggeringly offensive that even the National Commission for Women in India had to step in and demand an apology.

This isn’t just Bhai being Bhai. This is a superstar who continues to wield his privilege like a shield—and somehow still missed the memo on being at least performatively woke.

So as Sikandar gears up for its Eid release—promising action, drama, and yet another heroine half his age—maybe it’s time we stop clapping at slow-motion entries and start questioning why the industry keeps giving this Sikandar a free pass.