Shahid Kapoor lost roles due to boyish good looks
Shahid Kapoor claimed his youthful appearance meant he lost roles because producers felt actresses looked too old for him.
Shahid Kapoor found it hard to get leading man roles because he didn't look "manly".
The 42-year-old actor made his movie debut in 2003 with 'Ishq Vishk' and despite the film being a hit, the award-winning star struggled to get cast in further movies because producers couldn't figure out who could play the female lead as the actresses always looked older.
He told mid-day: “A lot of the times, they said, ‘Your movie worked, but whom do we cast you opposite?’ And they would name three-four big stars, and say, ‘You’ll look like a kid next to them, you’re not manly enough, we need a massy hero.’
"I had to choose from whatever people were ready to offer me, even though I was a successful actor, because the content that had been written at that time was made for the older actors.
And Shahid was warned his chances of success were low because of the recent popularity of Hrithik Roshan and Vivek Oberoi, who broke through into the mainstream just a few years before him.
“Hrithik came in two years before me, then Vivek happened. So, I remember the year that I debuted, they told me, ‘You have no chance of succeeding, because the industry only accepts one new hero every five years, and now it has accepted two in three years.’
"I used to listen to all that, and go to producers, who used to say we can’t cast anybody opposite you.”