A lia Bhatt (age 23, born in 1993) has just finished shooting Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi with Shah Rukh Khan (age nearly 51, born in 1965).

Alia Bhatt is hero Ajay Devgn (age 47, born in 1969) and director Rohit Shetty's first choice as the leading lady of Golmaal 4 , scheduled to go on the floors after the release of Shivaay.

Have these heroes lost it? Why would their directors have such a lopsided main pair? And why is Alia going for oldies?

Even an audience that loves May-December pairs where a young girl is cast opposite a hero two-and-a-half generations older, would consider an Alia-SRK or Alia-Ajay romance laughable. It's not so much about the chronological age difference as about Alia looking incredibly waif-like next to such seasoned seniors.

But here's the real story. Alia plays her age in Gauri Shinde's film, a girl who has roller coaster relationships, and it's all about her journey in life. And SRK is not cast romantically opposite her. There are youthful names like Aditya Roy Kapur and Angad Bedi that dot the cast for the romance part of Alia's life. Shah Rukh plays a therapist, a slightly quirky one at that. And that sounds like an interesting move by the actor. It is a dignified way of turning his career towards pivotal character-driven roles. In fact, Dear Zindagi will be Shah Rukh's next release, ahead of Raees, and from what one hears, his character and his performance will please and surprise his audience.

In other words, no, Shah Rukh hasn't lost it. On the contrary, he's got his act right unlike the old millennium where a Dharmendra would romance his son, Sunny's girlfriend Dimple, just to prove a point about his own appeal. Never mind how gross it looked.

From what one hears about Golmaal 4 , Rohit Shetty has a script that's been inspired by the Tamil film Kanchana 2 which was a thriller-comedy. The whisper is that Alia plays a spirit or ghost in the film. And nopes, she doesn't have a romantic role opposite Ajay in it. They have the most important parts in the film but they're not lovers.

So Ajay Devgn hasn't lost it either. And the immensely gifted Alia knows what she's doing. She pragmatically turned down a dud like Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro (she was Ashu's first choice before he signed up effete newcomer Pooja Hegde to romance Hrithik) and, even though she knew that her role in Kapoor & Sons was miniscule, she decided to join because the film as a whole worked for her. She's being sensible about picking the right parts.

What's also sounding right is that with odd and intriguing pairings like Alia with SRK or Alia with Ajay, where the heroes have neatly stepped away from playing the romantic lead, Hindi cinema looks set for a healthy new turn.

Meanwhile, Hindi cinema is growing up with the overwhelming response to a film like Pink which would once have been tagged "niche cinema". There's also Parched, where the audience response may not be a patch on Pink but it has dared to look boldly anew at man-woman equations.

There were two distinct sets of audiences for the private screenings of Parched in Mumbai. Those who saw the English version that has wowed festival audiences in the West felt privileged because they got to see the unedited nudity of Radhika Apte and Adil Hussain. Radhika has two such scenes. One is a scene with Tanishtha Chatterjee, an almost lesbian moment, where Radhika goes topless and it's a frontal shot. The other is a lovemaking scene with Adil where both of them go totally nude. The Hindi-Rajasthani version that was shown to the other audience was prudely (and prudently) edited for the theatres in India where Radhika's chest is blurred in the scene with Tanishtha and the lovemaking with Adil is erotic-aesthetic but not as stark as the English cut.

When Radhika knew that she'd have to go nude, she was game but wanted to ensure that she'd be comfortable with her co-star. Adil Hussain and she were friends and he had a great body, so he made a perfect fit, pardon the pun. One hears that the only alternative Radhika would have accepted was fellow Maharashtrian Milind Soman who is also known for his fitness and she would have been comfortable doing such an intimate scene with him.

As for Adil, he agreed to do this one-scene role for two reasons: one was undoubtedly Radhika with whom he shares a good friendship. The other was the cameraman. Russell Carpenter who shot Titanic for James Cameron was the man behind the beautifully shot Parched. Carpenter as cinematographer was enough for Adil to go on board with alacrity.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author