She’s a stunner all right, but she can’t quite launch a thousand films. She lights up the screen, but still plays second fiddle. It is paradoxical that despite being adored by millions, Indian actresses aren’t considered strong enough to carry a film on their shoulders.
It’s been decades since we had a Mother India or an Umrao Jaan. But the next few months will see a slew of women-centric Bollywood films like Onir’s I Am, Prakash Jha Productions’ Turning 30, Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani, Iti Mrinalini by Aparna Sen. Though trade analysts would love to argue that men will always rule the box office, it hasn’t stopped talented directors like Rajkumar Gupta from making No One Killed Jessica, or Vishal Bhardwaj doing a Saat Khoon Maaf and Madhur Bhandarkar roping in Kareena Kapoor for Heroine. The themes are all different, but the common thread that binds them all is the filmmakers’ belief in the power of a woman’s story.

STORY IS KING
Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani is a thriller about a woman in search of her husband in Kolkata, who finds herself struggling in an environment that is completely alien to her. “For me, it is the story that matters and not the protagonist. The story has to excite you first and then it doesn’t matter if it is a woman or man’s story. Kahaani revolves around the plight of a woman played by Vidya Balan,” he says.
Characters tell their own stories and the gender is incidental, says author Advaita Kala of Almost Single, who wrote the story for Kahaani. “I like to take creative risks and go places I have not gone before. I wrote Anjaana Anjaani, which was not a women-centric film per se, but the idea of trying new things drove me to be a part of the film. As for Kahaani, I was excited because it is a step away from what I am known for,” she says.
Though women-related themes comprise only a small percentage of the subjects that filmmakers prefer, the gender doesn’t matter for writer-director Aparna Sen, whose latest film Iti Mrinalini tells the tale of a famous star in Bengali cinema. She explains, “A good film is a good film. The subject needs to be strong and the story needs to be communicated well. Some films do good, some don’t. One can’t generalise that women-oriented subjects don’t get viewers’ acceptance.”
Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava, who previously assisted Prakash Jha in films like Rajneeti, Apaharan, Gangaajal and Dil Dosti Etc, is busy giving her directorial debut Turning 30 the finishing touch. “It is not that all women-oriented films flop. The key is interesting stories and good execution,” she says.
Jha himself has Mrityudand, a strong women-centric film, to his credit, so Alankrita didn’t have to try hard to convince him about her focus. She adds, “Luckily for me, I never had to battle it out for the subject of the film. Because I’ve worked with him for so many years, he knew instinctively that I’m going to make a woman-centric film. Prakashji is far ahead of his times. His only concern was the quality of the screenplay. I got the green light for the film once he was happy with the final screenplay.”
Industry insiders agree that content is the king, but they still insist that there are other factors that need to be addressed to keep the cash registers ringing. They reveal that our society has its own limitations and women here are not seen as powerful entities.
Film and admaker Pradeep Sarkar says that in the ad world, women call the shots and we are also seeing a surge of women directors coming to the fore and delivering meaningful cinema, yet Bollywood is largely hero-struck.

MALE APPEAL
The Indian audience is undoubtedly partial to its heroes. Bollywood, for some reason, has not managed to shed its gender bias. Female-oriented movies generally fall within the bracket of arthouse cinema which commands a niche audience; while men play the leads in comedies, thrillers and action films which have a wider appeal. “That is why films with saleable heroes get great initials but if a film has a big and saleable heroine teamed up with a lesser hero, there are strong chances the film may open to poor houses. We live in a male-dominated society and that reflects in our film preferences too,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.
Jagmohan Mundhra, who has critically acclaimed women-centric films Provoked and Bawandar to his credit, adds, “Big difference now is that sellable male actors are not willing to work in female-centric movies and distributors are not willing to finance a film without a sellable male name in the cast.”
Director Onir, who is currently working on the post-production of his movie I Am, which is a collection of four short tales each tackling a society-based issue, believes that in the ’70s and ’80s there were many mainstream films in which female protagonists played important roles. “With multiplexes and high ticket prices, family movie outings became selective and with that the demand for wholesome entertainers soared high. But now, with women earning independently, the scenario has to change. This is why space is being created in a male-dominated industry. Women must change the way cinema portrays them by saying yes to strong portrayals of women and no to regressive films,” says Onir.

SCRIPT SCOPE
“This is a mystery to me. I find it much more interesting to make a film through female protagonists. They understand the idea of loss better and are not afraid of showing their weaker side. They are as capable of betrayal as their male counterparts but in the end are perhaps more there when it comes to the crunch. The Indian heroine is capable of shouldering the burden, perhaps the fault is in the scripts and the fact that they are sketched in a one-dimensional, flat sort of way,” says filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who has delivered a gem like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and is working on Yeh Saali Zindagi with his muse Chitrangada Singh playing a strong-headed woman.
Scriptwriter Manisha Lakhe thinks women-centric films end up being box office poison as one tends to stereotype them as films with hard-hitting messages. Lajja had a strong script but it made a martyr of women and that bored audience to tears, she explains, adding, “Women devour Mills and Boon style romances. But movies touted as woman-centric tend to end up being preachy and tear-inducing. We should see how sharp the modern version of The Taming of the Shrew is, 10 Things I Hate About You too stole the show. And let’s not forget Kanduk-ondain Kandukon-dain, our desi version of Sense and Sensibility. What a fabulous movie! It all boils down to a strong script. A strong script will pull in not only women to theatres, but it will drag in the men folk too.”
Actor Rani Mukerji in an interview was quoted as saying, “Women-centric roles have been there right from the beginning. There’s always an opportunity for good actors, but it depends on the filmmakers, and what roles they write. That is integral.”

BUDGET BOOST
Scripts alone can’t do wonders. More money needs to be pumped in and more sales encouraged for films to experience a buoyancy and market revival. “Hollywood has seen it in the past few years and Bollywood too can be a witness to this euphoria if we get decent budgets for writing as well as producing. There’s no dearth of talent here. There just needs to be a formidable financial plan, and effective execution of that in writing and making, and I have little doubt that the BO will turn around before you know it,” says Tanuja Chandra, one of the few radical women directors in Bollywood, whose female characters are fiery and path-breakers.
Director Madhur Bhandarkar, whose success chart is marked with hits like Chandni Bar, Satta, Page 3 and Fashion, which got Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut their first National Award for convincingly portraying the dilemma of fashion models, is all geared up for his ambitious project Heroine. He feels filmmakers should to be encouraged to attempt different and relevant subjects and actors need to cut their price. “Right budget, overall packaging, good marketing and visibility are the prerequisites of good cinema. Filmmakers have to be passionate about their work and should see beyond the BO and know how to deliver their best in the given budget,” he says.

FUTURE scenario
Will we ever see female heroes driving their films to the “success point”? Tanuja seconds, “The Indian heroine has always been ready to shoulder a film, and can do it masterfully at any time. The question here should be — When will the business of entertainment be ready to shoulder heroine-oriented films?” Advaita adds that if we are going to work towards successful female-centric movies, then it will have to be a collaborative shift, involving filmmakers, actors, writers and most importantly viewers. “It’s a matter of time before it changes and we see many more movies with female protagonists, our very own Julia Roberts, who will shoulder movies on their own mettle,” she says.