Time for women oriented cinema in Bollywood?

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Bollywood has always been a male dominated industry. No matter how popular the actresses are, it’s always the actor who has the star power to pull in the crowd. Most of the movies showcase the leading man as a larger than life character. Look at the Khans, they have been ruling the industry for decades now and all their blockbusters in recent years hardly offer any scope for the actresses. What role did Katrina Kaif have in Dhoom 3 or Sonakshi Sinha in Rowdy Rathore? Except Deepika Padukone in Chennai Express, we can’t think of a big masala movie having substantial role for the actress.

However slowly and steadily things seem to be changing in Bollywood. It all started with Vidya Balan few years back. A powerful performer, she was able to give a number of hits on her own credit, something which was a rarity in the industry. Success of her films like Kahaani, The Dirty Picture proved that the audience is ready for a change and this in turn encouraged filmmakers to come up with more women centric films.

This year one women oriented film has again grabbed everyone’s attention and has been declared the first clean hit of 2014. Yes, we are talking about Queen. The story of a middle class girl from Delhi who goes on her honeymoon alone was able to win the heart of the viewers, thanks to excellent direction and some powerful acting by Kangana Ranaut and the supporting cost. Queen is a simple film but has it’s heart at the right place. The movie started poorly at the box office collecting less than 2 crore on it’s 1st day but the business grew as the positive word of mouth spread all around. In fact weekedays were better than weekend and 2nd week was better than 1st week, something that we hardly see in Bollywood.

The success of Queen proves that nothing sells like good cinema. One can do as much promotions but ultimately if your film is good it will work at the box office. Sure actresses alone can’t still guarantee a big opening but the success of films like Queen proves that the audience is more than ready to embrace this kind of cinema. It also encourages filmmakers to try something different and it’s because of the success of films like Kahaani, English Vinglish and now Queen that more women oriented movies are being made. 2014 will see more women centric movies in the coming months- Vidya Balan’s  Bobby Jasoos, Kangana Ranaut’s Revolver Rani, Priyanka Chopra’s Mary Kom, Rani Mukherji’s Mardaani and many more!

While the actresses still can’t guarantee a 30 crore opening, still the success of Queen is an indication that the change is just around the corner. More power to the actresses, we say!

 

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