By Subhash K Jha

Dating younger men seems to be in. If in real life seasoned television actress Shradha Nigam is currently dating the latest tv flavour Karan Singh Grover, big-screen actresses are game to pair with younger heroes, at least in the movies.

Earlier Dimple Kapadia attempted the dare pair with Akshaye Khanna in Dil Chahta Hai, Saif Ali Khan in Being Cyrus and Amol Mhatre in Leela.It's now Bipasha Basu who's attempting the dare pair with Ranbir Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh in two of her forthcoming films.

Ranbir's is her co-star in Siddharth Anand's Bachna Ae Haseenon and it's Neil in new-director Jehangir Surti's Freeze.

According to the plot, Bipasha plays a slightly older co-star to both the coveted debutants of 2007.

In Freeze, Bipasha is cast as a deejay to Neil Mathur's role of a high-flying photographer.

Bipasha is at the moment reluctant to talk about her role. "We're in discussion. I like the script. It's too soon to talk about it."

Neil too is cautious, but far more forthright. "Yes, Bipasha is opposite me in Freeze. And I'm really excited. She's someone I've always admired."

Mention the age-difference, and Neil gets immediately embarrassed. "Nobody will notice that she came to the industry before me. Our characters justify our presence. She does play someone older.

Is she really older to Ranbir in the Yashraj film? Just a coincidence, I guess. In our film together I play this guy who starts off as down-and-out and then goes to become this really big name in his field.

I like playing characters with a graph. Johnny Gaddar had that graph. I went from greed to atonement. My second film Tera Kya Hoga Johnny with Sudhirbhai (Mishra) is again a character with shades. I start Freeze in April."

But there's a John in this story. Bipasha was reluctant to do another film where her co-star was younger. John convinced her.

"That's true," Neil never lies. "Bipasha did have her doubts when she read the script. But then John Abraham who happens to be a pal of the Freeze director happened to go through the script.

He convinced Bipasha to go for it. John is a really cool guy. And Bipasha, she's hot! I hope John doesn't mind my saying so."