Are Salman Khan and Alia Bhatt romancing in Bhansali's next? Twitter sure hopes not

News of Alia Bhatt and Salman Khan's next project tilted InshaAllah has caused a frenzy on Twitter - some good, some bad.

The Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial, which will feature the two heavyweights, caught the attention of fans after Salman and Alia broke the news on social media.

Salman wrote, "It’s been 20 years but I am glad Sanjay and I are finally back in his next film, Inshallah. Looking forward to working with Alia and inshallah we will all be blessed on this journey."

Alia chose to pen something a bit more personal, "I was 9 when I first walked into Sanjay Leela Bhansali's office, all nervous and hoping and praying that I would be in his next film. It's been a long wait."

Although it's not yet confirmed whether the two will be romancing each other onscreen, there have been speculations that the duo will be playing love interests in the film. While many cheered the pairing, other have been more skeptical of the age difference. The actors are 27 years apart and for some fans that's problematic.

Publications have also called out the difference by comparing the age gap between Salman and his other female co-stars.

But this begs the question: why is it that when a woman romances a younger star onscreen it's always seen as unconventional, like in Dil Chahta Hai when Akshay Khanna falls in love with Dimple Kapadia or in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil when Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai are in a relationship, but if an older man is romantically linked to a (much) younger star it's never seen as odd, case in point, Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi or even Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo?

So who's not to say that Madhuri Dixit and Varun Dhawan can romance without making it seen like an unlikely relationship?

Alia herself, however, was dismissive about the criticism over her age gap with Salman. Speaking to Pinkvilla, she said, “I didn’t get any criticism. I think I got a lot of excitement. I think speculation is also a form of excitement in a way and why shouldn’t there be speculation. There should be and at least I am not bothered by that and I don’t think Salman or Bhansali sir are bothered. I think this is a filmmaker who has given us very good films, he is someone who we all are very fond of and I think we should just trust him with his vision.”