When Bollywood Put Working Women At the Centre of Its Plots : Check These Out

Bollywood films on working women featuring career-oriented female characters are a relatively new phenomenon. Only in the last two decades have Indian women begun to work as women, and this number has risen dramatically in the last decade.

Bollywood has come a long way from standard mom characters to side girl characters, and from the main character as a survivor to the main character as a lover. Working women roles in Bollywood films have broadened perspectives and increased the bar for portraying women in Indian films.

We have compiled a list of Bollywood films where working women were celebrated through films like Panga, Tumhari Sullu, Neerja, Piku, and many more.

Here the list begins:

1. No One Killed Jessica (2011)

Raj Kumar Gupta directed and wrote No One Killed Jessica, a 2011 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film. This film is based on the true story of Jessica Lal's assassination.

It's the story of Jessica's older sister, Sabrina Lal (Vidya Balan), as she battles the affluent and powerful guy who shot her sister. Vidya Balan is aided in her struggle against all obstacles by Rani Mukerji, who plays a tough journalist. The movie demonstrates that even a regular working woman can overcome adversity and strive for justice.

2. Marry Kom (2014)

Mary Kom is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports film directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, based on the life of the eponymous boxer Mary Kom. Priyanka Chopra plays the leading lady in the film. Mary Kom is based on the true story of an Indian fighter who achieved international acclaim for her country. Kom's narrative is beautifully depicted on the big screen by Priyanka Chopra, who plays the real-life figure.

It's noteworthy because of the challenges Kom faced during her career. She makes a comeback as a mother of two after her marriage. Despite all odds, Kom maintains her amazing journey.

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3. Mardaani (2014)

Mardaani is a Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Aditya Chopra. It was released in India in 2014. Shivani Shivaji Roy, a policewoman whose interest in the case of an abducted young girl leads her to uncover secrets of human trafficking by the Indian mafia, is portrayed by Rani Mukerji.

Mardaani is the story of a female cop, and it depicts how she combats woman trafficking in the city.This film is not just about a serious topic, but it is also about a woman who is pursuing a career as a cop.

4. Masaan ( 2015)

Masaan is a 2015 Hindi-language independent drama film about societal challenges in India.

Masaan is set in modern-day Varanasi, India, and chronicles two seemingly different stories that gradually converge. The first tells the narrative of Devi Pathak, a trainer at a coaching computer centre (Richa Chadda).

Devi questioned the roles that her father and society had imposed on her. Despite her remorse over her boyfriend's death, she refused to let irrational limitations prevent her from achieving her goals.  She was a great example of how a woman's profession should never be sacrificed for the sake of society.

5. Piku( 2015)

Piku is a comedy-drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by N. P. Singh, Ronnie Lahiri, and Sneha Rajani that was released in 2015. Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, and Irrfan Khan appear in the film, which also has Moushumi Chatterjee and Jisshu Sengupta in supporting parts.

Piku embodied every professional woman in the millennial generation. Her unwavering devotion for her father was matched by her displeasure with his oddities. She was confident in her career and personal choices, yet, like so many of us, she was still struggling under the societal pressure of marriage. Simply put, she was a lady we could all identify with.

6. Dil Dhadakne Do ( 2015)

Dil Dhadakne Do is a comedy-drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar under the Excel Entertainment label in 2015.

Priyanka Chopra played the role of Aisha, who  started her own business, was better at managing business operations than her brother, and didn't want to be a mother. Despite this, she battled to receive respect from her own family and had to fight for her rights and wishes on a daily basis. Aisha's narrative is similar to that of many other career-oriented women who struggle with shame from their families for not adhering to 'typical female responsibilities.'

7. Neerja (2016)

Neerja is a biographical thriller film directed by Ram Madhvani and written by Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh that was released in India in 2016. Rama, Neerja's mother, is concerned about Neerja's profession as a flight attendant and suggests that she return to her previous modelling career. The film Neerja Bhanot is based on the true storey of a flight purser who was shot and killed while ensuring the safety of hundreds of passengers on the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73.

8. Dear Zindagi ( 2016)

Gauri Shinde wrote and directed the 2016 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age drama film Dear Zindagi.

Alia Bhatt's character Kaira embodied the millennial generation, not only millennial women, since she was career-driven, slightly messed up, at times irrational, and dealing with familial troubles. Her problems to be taken seriously at work despite her abilities were as real as her deep-seated family issues and personal decisions. Of course, the film provided an insightful and much-needed look at why mental health is so vital.

9. Tumhari Sulu ( 2017)

Tumhari Sulu scene

Suresh Triveni wrote and directed Tumhari Sulu, a 2017 Hindi comedy-drama film. Vidya Balan plays the titular character, a driven housewife who works as a late-night love advice radio jockey.

Sulu made us wonder why we, as a society, expect housewives to only care for their families. Sulu's effort to find her calling, the everyday struggle to balance job and domestic obligations, and the never-ending battle against her family's orthodoxy were all stories that women from many walks of life could relate to.

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10. Raazi ( 2018)

Raazi is a spy thriller film directed by Meghna Gulzar and produced by Vineet Jain and Karan Johar that was released in India in 2018. The current film features Alia Bhatt in the major role. Raazi is a film based on true events about an Indian spy who marries a Pakistani army officer during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. Alia Bhatt's character puts her career and country ahead of her personal life, and she flies to Pakistan on a secret mission.

11. Panga ( 2020)

Kangana Ranaut in a still from Panga

Panga is a Hindi-language sports film directed and co-written by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and produced by Fox Star Studios in 2020.It is not only a powerful voice at a time when so many women are leaving the workforce, but it is also a beautifully made film.

Panga is a film that honours the countless hours of labour that moms put into their families while also encouraging them to never give up on their aspirations and to give themselves a second opportunity. She initially struggles to cope with the pressures of a stressful job and the exercise routines that her son's enthusiasm forces her to complete, but she eventually regains her composure and, with the help of her family, marks her comeback to the sport as a mother of a 7-year-old after her story is rediscovered. She wins the Kabaddi Cup for Team India in the grand finale.

12. Gunjan Saxena ( 2020)

Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl is a biographical drama film directed by Sharan Sharma and produced by Dharma Productions and Zee Studios that will be released in India in 2020. Janhvi Kapoor plays Indian Air Force pilot Gunjan Saxena, one of the country's first female fighter pilots (the first was Srividya Rajan), with Pankaj Tripathi and Angad Bedi in supporting parts.

Gunjan Saxena isn't very concerned with patriotism. It revolves around a young girl who aspires to fly and is unconcerned about where she does it - whether for a commercial private airline or the Indian Air Force. She eventually joins the IAF due to the fact that they were accepting women at the time.