Mumbai, March 9 – National Award-winning actor and filmmaker Saurabh Shukla believes that love doesn't fade with age, stating that the feeling simply evolves over time.
Saurabh's latest release is "Jab Khuli Kitaab," which tells the story of Gopal and Anusuya, an elderly couple's decades-long marriage, which is disrupted when a revelation emerges.
As secrets are revealed, the family navigates a range of emotions, both touching and comedic, exploring themes of love, companionship, forgiveness, and rediscovering one another.
Speaking about his latest project, "Jab Khuli Kitaab," the 63-year-old star told IANS that the film explores romance and companionship in the later stages of life, a theme that is still relatively under-explored in mainstream Hindi cinema.
The star revealed that while writing the script, many people questioned whether younger audiences would connect with a story centered around an elderly couple.
"When I was writing this script, many people with good intentions asked me whether Gen Z or younger audiences would like a story about an older couple. But I never had any doubts because of the way the story is told and the way the characters are portrayed," he told IANS.
Saurabh explained that the film portrays an elderly couple who appear to be leading a settled life until an emotional shift rekindles their youthful spirit.
"You see this old couple leading a perfect life. Obviously, with whatever tragedy life throws at them, they are leading it, everything is settled. Then something breaks inside, and it just changes their lives, and they become like kids. They start fighting like kids."
According to Saurabh, the characters may appear old on the outside but are youthful in spirit.
"They start expressing themselves, and their emotions come out of nowhere. So they are the youngest old people, you know. So I said, why wouldn't young people connect with the story, because it's a story of two young people who look old," he added.
The actor also reflected on how romance in cinema has largely been associated with youth, while love in later stages of life has rarely been explored.
"Yes, we can't live without love, we always love. The expression of love keeps changing, and obviously, it's much more physical when you're young because your hormones are at their peak."
He added: "So the power of hormones, the love that has a lot of physicality, a lot of intensity, a lot of excitement, physical excitement, that's a type of love, and usually we connect with that."
However, he stressed that the essence of love never disappears.
"But we never stop loving, you know. We keep loving. It's a beautiful, lovely feeling when you open your eyes, and the best person in the world is right next to you, sleeping," Saurabh said.
