Jackie Shroff readying for new innings, shedding weight

Sep 7, 2011 Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Sep 7 (IANS) Guess who is trying to get into shape? Jackie Shroff has been asked to get rid of the extra baggage for his role of a 40-year-old father in a film called "Life's Good".

Jackie, once sinewy, has put on a lot of weight.

"I want Jackie Shroff to be the sexiest dad ever seen in our films," said the film's director Ananth Mahadevan.

"Notwithstanding some of the roles he has done in recent times, Jackie is a star. You can tell he is is one when he walks into a room. I want 'Life's Good' to be the perfect re-launch for Jackie," he added.

Jackie, 51, entered Bollywood in the early 1980s and gave hits like "Hero", "Teri Meherbaniyan", "Karma", "Ram Lakhan", "Tridev", "Parinda" and "Gardish".

In the recent past, he was seen in not-so-successful films like "Kisaan" and "Veer".

Besides the fact that "Life's Good" is designed to bring Jackie into the reckoning as a dependable middle-aged actor, the interesting aspect of the role is that it requires the actor to play a father to a daughter in three different stages of her life.

A frantic hunt is on for three different girls from different age groups who would look convincing as Jackie's daughter. The shooting is to begin this month and the actresses are yet to be found.

"I need three actresses aged 6, 13 and 20 who not only look like Jackie's daughter but also resemble one another in speech, body language, height and other physical details since they'll be playing the same character. It's a tough call. We're working on it," said Mahadevan who directed films like "Dil Vil Pyar Vyar", "Aksar" and "Red Alert".

"We are looking at dozens of new faces. Jackie too is helping. He's very excited about the role," he added.