The Rising Girl Power in Bollywood

The Indian movie industry has always known to be dominated by male actors. With most of the makers focusing on the actors while working on a particular project, the opportunities for women have been limited, with most of the times them being included only for dance sequences, or for adding some sizzling content to the movie.

The situation, however, is changing for better today. More and more movies are being made from the point of view of women, and the Bollywood actresses have reached at par with the Actors , as far as the content of the cinema is concerned.

In recent times, several women-centric movies have garnered the attention of the audience and have received both critical and commercial success.

At the top of the list at present is Sonam Kapoor's ‘Neerja’. Based on the hijack of the Pan America flight in Lahore, in which flight attendant Neerja Bhanot was killed by  terrorists, while saving the lives of 360 passengers on board, the story of Neerja is truly inspiring. Kapoor, who has not received much appreciation for her acting skills, prior to this movie ,has impressed not only the fans but also the critics with her superb portrayal of Neerja Bhanot.

Secondly, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who made a comeback in Bollywood after a long time too showed her real talent while working in two movies with strong female characters. Both Jazbaa, and then the super hit blockbuster Sarabjit,are similar in the fact that they convey the story of a woman fighting against all odds to save her family members and loved ones from all troubles.

Priyanka Chopra too showcased her talent in ‘Jai Gangajal’, a sequel of the movie ‘Gangajal’ starring Ajay Devgan.In this movie, she played a tough lady cop fighting against all forms of wrongdoing in the society.The movie performed exceptionally well, and added to the list of her successful movies such as ‘Fashion’ ,‘MaryKom’ and ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’, all of which deals with the story of women,or about women.

Apart from these, there are several other actresses who have done a really great job and have made a movie successful, completely on their own while playing strong characters. Two actresses, who are very important to name here are Vidya Balan and Kangana Ranaut. While Vidya impressed everyone with her strong roles in ‘The Dirty Picture’, ‘Kahaani’ and ‘No one killed Jessica’, Kangana’s Queen broke all existing box office records of the female dominated movies.

Rani Mukherjee too gave a power-packed performance in ‘Mardaani’, breaking all existing stereotypes of gender in Indian cinema. Kareena Kapoor Khan, too worked in several such stories, with ‘Heroine’ and ‘Chameli’ being some of the most appreciated movies of this genre.

Sonakshi Sinha is a new name who will be added in this list, after the release of ‘Akira’. The trailer of the movie which was released recently  shows Sinha as a strong and independent girl fighting against all odds in the society.The trailer has received general praise from the public.

Basically, it is interesting to see such movies becoming a part of the mainstream cinema, and we can expect many more such movies coming up in the near future.




Written by Avinash Srivastava
A Writer of Stories, Loves Novels and Movies