March 03, 2007	Saturday	Safar 13, 1428

MUMBAI: Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan insists that his roles in two new films in which he falls in love with women significantly younger than himself are not indications of a mid-life crisis.

The gray-haired star, 64, has taken on a number of Casanova-type roles to keep his acting fresh and get away from being typecast as a father figure, Bachchan said in an interview published on Friday.

“Well, variety is the spice of life. I was getting a little tired of playing the patriarch in all my films,” he told The Indian Express newspaper. “I realised that if I continue to do it then it would be the end of me as an actor.”

In his latest movie ''Nishabd,'' or ''Wordless,'' Bachchan plays an aging romantic attracted to his teenage daughter's friend. In ''Cheeni Kum,'' or ''Less Sugar,'' to be released later this year, he plays a chef who falls in love with a woman whose father is younger than himself.

“I'm sure once they see the film, the audience will understand the honest and genuine feelings of my character in the films rather than focus on just sex and sexuality.”

Bachchan is one of India's most popular actors and has acted in about 160 movies in a career spanning three decades.—AP