An actress has a shelf life, says Vikram Bhatt

Director Vikram Bhatt, whose forthcoming film 'Raaz 3' apparently has references of his relationship with actress Ameesha Patel, says, he understands the pain of an actress who rises to fame and the sudden downfall.

"I have these memories of a girl (Ameesha) who was fighting hard to bring back the time gone by and I too was having my struggle with the bad phase. So it is not just about her, it is also about me. But, luckily I was able to re-invent myself because I am a director, who doesn't have a shelf life," Vikram told PTI, without accepting or denying that Bipasha's role in 'Raaz 3' was inspired by Ameesha's life.

In 'Raaz 3', Bipasha plays an actress who is at the top of her career and sees a sudden downfall with another budding actress, Esha Gupta, taking her place. To regain her position in the industry, Bipasha resorts to black magic. Emraan Hashmi plays the role of a director in the movie.

Earlier, noted Bollywood director-producer Mahesh Bhatt had said that 'Raaz 3' contains a slice from Bipasha Basu's life.

"It also coincides with Bipasha Basu's life where she is feeling the breath of extinction as the younger girls have come in who may elbow her out," Mahesh had said.

Vikram also said somewhere the film's story coincides with that of Bipasha Basu, himself and writer Shagufta Rafique. However, the 43-year-old director did not divulge much on it, and only mentioned that there is a "surprise element" in the film.

An actress has shelf life and that is the unfortunate part, he said.

"The case with an actress is that she has a shelf life. And that is the unfortunate part. Like Ameesha, even Preity (Zinta) faced similar problems. I feel Hindi film heroes cannot age anytime. Like Aamir Khan today does films with younger actresses," Vikram said.

"Today Aamir is 47-year-old but he can play a college student in '3 Idiots' but we will not accept Madhuri Dixit that way. It is unfortunate that actress is used only for glamour quotient," he said.