It looks like more than a coincidence, but it's just that -- Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore and their scions Abhishek and Soha will be seen together in films backed by AB Corp Ltd, which will also be released around the same time.

With Mahesh Manjrekar's "Viruddh", starring Amitabh and Sharmila, and Rituparno Ghosh's "Antar Mahal" with Abhishek and Soha being readied for near-simultaneous releases, audiences will watch the two sets of parents and children in a huge dollop of nostalgia and contemporariness.

First the senior pair.

Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore, last seen together in Manmohan Desai's semi-successful "Desh Premee", came together in "Viruddh" by sheer default.

When Manjrekar mooted the idea of making a film about an elderly couple grappling with an unforeseen tragedy in their life, he wanted to make sure the strong female lead opposite Bachchan had a certain freshness and dynamism.

It's a well-known fact that AB is tired of working with the same faces in all his films. Earlier on, if it wasn't Jaya Prada it was Rakhee. Lately he has been experimenting with actors like Nandita Das ("Aks") and Shefali Shah ("Waqt"), who don't match him in age but are capable of standing up to his towering presence.

Manjrekar first thought of casting Shabana Azmi with Amitabh in "Viruddh". What a coup that would have been! But Rituparno Ghosh beat Manjrekar to it. Ghosh decided to cast AB, Shabana and Farhan as a family.

Then he thought of Sharmila and Saif as mother and son. Sharmila was in, but Saif opted out. This left the field open for Amitabh, Sharmila and John Abraham as one happy family.

Cut to Rituparno Ghosh's stark and silent Bengali film "Antar Mahal", a period drama about forbidden love set in a feudal landscape. Ghosh immediately thought of Abhishek Bachchan as the seething, smouldering, silent Bihari idol-maker and Kareena Kapoor as the desolate bahu of a zamindar's family in Kolkata.

But Kareena had second thoughts. Ghosh thereby managed a casting coup -- Amitabh Bachchan's son with Sharmila Tagore's daughter Soha.

"It's a casting coup all right. See, Calcuttans thinks of Amitabh and Sharmila as their son and daughter. To see their children together is of great sentimental value to Bengalis," Ghosh coos about the coup.

Other similar pairings:

Jeetendra-Babita in "Farz", Tusshar-Kareena in "Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai".

Joy Mukherjee-Mala Sinha in "Humsaya", Joy Mukherjee-Pratibha Sinha in "Mehboob Mere Mehboob".

Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore in "Aradhana", Twinkle Khanna-Saif in "Dil Tera Deewana".