Now what a year it has been for Bollywood. Practically every top league actress was seen in a woman-centric film, be it Vidya Balan (Bobby Jasoos), Priyanka Chopra (Mary Kom), Deepika Padukone (Finding Fanny), Kangna Ranaut (Queen), Sunny Leone (Ragini MMS-2), Bipasha Basu (Creature), Parineeti Chopra (Daawat-e-Ishq) or Sonam Kapoor (Khoobsurat). While each of them ensured that women were at the forefront, it is going to be men doing all the talking in next few weeks, what with Shahrukh Khan (Happy New Year), Aamir Khan (PK) and Ajay Devgn (Action Jackson) arriving with a film apiece.
Rhea Chakraborty (Sonali Cable) and Rekha (Super Nani) would be carrying the flag too in a female driven affair for the next few weeks, next year too the fervor will continue with Bipasha Basu (Alone), Sonam Kapoor (Dolly Ki Doli), a bunch of new heroines in Madhur Bhandarkar‘s Calendar Girls, Priyanka Chopra (Madamji) and Kajol‘s comeback film.
So is this just a passing fad or something which is here to stay?
“Nowadays I feel it is basically the film, and not actors or gender specifically, that pulls in the audience. When people see the First Look of the film, they decide whether they want to watch it or not. It does not matter whether the protagonist is a male or a female; as long as the film tells a good story, the audiences are willing to see it,” says Bhushan Patel, who has delivered two female centric sequel successes in back to back manner (Ragini MMS-2, 1920 – Evil Returns), and has now roped Bipasha Basu in a double role for his in-production super-natural film Alone.
On the other hand Madhur Bhandarkar, who has made a career out of making women-centric films and is now going to make two back to back heroine-driven affairs (Calendar Girls, Madamji), reflects, “It is all the more encouraging when you see actresses cut down their prices for a film like this to as much as one fourth. They know when they star in a film with a big hero, they will earn a lot more. It is all the more fair to see women driving films across genres, be it sports, politics, glamour, biopic, comedy, horror, fashion etc. The trending is just right and it is here to stay.”
We like that!