Tollywood’s Age-Gap Debate Flares Up Again Before ‘Akhanda 2’ Song Release

The debate over the age gap between Tollywood heroes and their much younger heroines has resurfaced once again. For years now, senior stars like Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh, and Ravi Teja have been targeted on social media for pairing with actresses young enough to be their daughters. While these pairings remain common in commercial cinema, many feel they are outdated and contribute to unrealistic on-screen representation.
The latest controversy began with the release of a new poster from Nandamuri Balakrishna’s upcoming film Akhanda 2, which features 65-year-old Balakrishna alongside 30-year-old Samyuktha Menon. The glamorous look given to Samyuktha has triggered fresh criticism online, with netizens calling it miscasting and urging Tollywood to stop normalizing such wide age gaps. Fans and critics argue that these young actresses are far closer in age to the heroes’ children, making the pairing uncomfortable.
However, despite recurring debates, these combinations continue because they rarely affect box-office performance. As long as the general audience outside social media accepts the content, filmmakers feel no need to change the formula. The age-gap discussion resurfaces every few months, but Tollywood still shows no signs of moving away from this long-standing tradition.