In the black-and-white era historical movies were at their peak. This genre of films have been appealing filmmakers as well as moviegoers, since Ardeshir Irani’s historical movie ‘Alamara’, which was also the first Indian sound movie, hit the silver screen.

However, if one have a look at the list of important historical and periodical movies, one can see that the top stars such as Ashok Kumar (Humayun), Prithviraj Kapoor (Mughal-e-Azam and Sikandar-e-Azam), Dilip Kumar (Mughal-e-Azam), Sunil Dutt (Amrapali), Dharmendra (Razia Sultan), Manoj Kumar (Shaheed), Shah Rukh Khan (Asoka), Ajay Devgan (The Legend Of Bhagat Singh) and Aamir Khan (Mangal Pandey) have done historical movies in their times. So, seeing Bollywood’s superhero Hrithik Roshan in the role of Mughal emperor Akbar in Ashutosh Gowarikar’s coming film ‘Jodha Akbar’ is no surprise.

Obviously, there is a question that can handsome hunk Hrithik Roshan step into the shoes of the legendary Prithviraj Kapoor? It was way back in 1960 that the legendary Prithviraj played the iconic portrayal of the Mughal emperor Akbar in K. Asif’s all-time great ‘Mughal-e-Azam’. This year it is going to be the heartthrob, Hrithik Roshan donning the role of Akbar in ‘Jodha Akbar’ .

The portrayal of the Akbar of ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ and the Akbar of ‘Jodha Akbar’ is completely different. One cannot draw comparisons between the two, as Prithviraj played the ageing father battling to win over a defiant son and the other is a young romantic Mughal fighting for his lady love.

While Prithviraj Kapoor's old Akbar showed authority and power, Hrithik Roshan's young Akbar brings a vulnerability to the role. From his trademark baritone to his authorative gait, Prithviraj Kapoor looked like he had come out of the pages of history, while Hrithik's transformation from a superman image to the Mughal emperor is a spectacle. It’s the warrior vs. the lover. It’s a battle between Prithviraj Kapoor's class vs. Hrithik Roshan's flamboyance.

While Asif’s ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ was a doomed love story of Salim and Anarkali, played by the tragedy king Dilip Kumar and the beauty queen of the era Madhubala, Gowarikar's 16th century tale is about prince Salim's parents, Akbar and Jodhabai, who were brought together by a marriage of alliance. Will you think pairing Hrithik Roshan against the beauty queen of this age Aishwarya Rai (playing Jodha) weave the same magic? Earlier, Hrithik and Aishwarya had scorched the screen in the slick flick ‘Dhoom 2’, but Gowarikar, the director of the film, says that their previous image is nothing to do with this film.

Like Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan is also having more or less the same flair of perfection. Both are daring to experiment with their roles. A couple of years back, Aamir too played a periodical character in ‘Mangal Pandey’, and was appreciated for his wonderful portrayal of the character, though the film was flop. Hope Hrithik will also do the same with his historical character Akbar to prove that he is better than the best! Releasing in the Valentine’s week, on February 15, ‘Jodha Akbar’ is a rather unusual Valentine romance – between a Mughal emperor and a Hindu woman who was the emperor's arranged match.