Veteran actress Neena Gupta has opened up about the constant challenges faced by aging actors in the entertainment industry and pointed out the lack of meaningful roles being written for people of her age.
Speaking candidly at the FICCI Frames 2025 Summit, Gupta recalled that brief phase in her career when she was offered many strong and age-appropriate roles, especially from small budget OTT projects. He said that these roles excited him and gave him a creative boost. However, many of those promising projects failed to materialize.
He said, “I got a lot of roles. I enjoyed it a lot. At my age, producers couldn’t write anything. They couldn’t write anything for us.” “And then what happened? Suddenly, the projects I had agreed to never came back. I asked my manager what happened. These were great roles and I was so excited.”
Gupta explained how small OTT producers often created interesting roles for older actors, but were sidelined when bigger producers stepped in.
“So, what happened? Suddenly, all the big filmmakers, successful filmmakers, got into it. Because kids got money. They got into it. And the small budget OTT filmmakers, who used to tell me stories, they were shocked,” he shared.
Although she clarified that she still has work to do, the actress’ comments reflect a larger trend in the industry – where established talent above a certain age often gets limited representation on screen.
Now in its 25th year, FICCI Frames is Asia’s leading media and entertainment conference, being held in Mumbai on October 7-8, 2025. The event features industry leaders talking about trends, challenges and innovations in film, TV and digital content.
This year’s lineup includes major names like Ekta Kapoor, Shoojit Sircar, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Hansal Mehta and Kiran Rao, along with actors like Huma Qureshi, Prateek Gandhi, Divya Dutta, Rajpal Yadav and Neena Gupta herself. On the first day, Akshay Kumar and Ayushmann Khurrana also came on stage to share their experiences with the attendees.
Gupta’s honest views resonated with many in the audience, highlighting the urgent need for more diverse and inclusive storytelling in Indian cinema.
