Bollywood heroines just flipped the script

Bollywood heroines aren’t here to be rescued anymore.

Transcript

00:00She cries, she runs, she waits to be saved.

00:02That's true.

00:03The damsel in distress, Bollywood's favourite female stereotype.

00:06And we are done with it.

00:08For decades, this was the formula.

00:10The man fights, the woman fears.

00:12She is decoration, she is motivation, but she is rarely ever the action.

00:15Always a reason for war, never the warrior.

00:18You said what?

00:19You said it.

00:20Smita Patel and Shabana Azmi weren't playing cute.

00:23They were playing real.

00:24Angry, complex, powerful.

00:26Veteran actress Zeenath Aman shattered the sanskari mode.

00:28Rekha, she turned tragedy into rage and silence into a statement.

00:33Then came Rani, a one-woman rebellion in a chiffon-heavy era.

00:37In Black, in Mardani, in No One Kill Jessica, she wasn't a damsel.

00:41She was a disruption.

00:42Let me try it.

00:43And now, the new wave isn't waiting for permission.

00:46Katrina is doing her stunts.

00:48Not as arm candy, but as an assassin.

00:50Priyanka moved beyond borders.

00:52Played a spy, a boss, a killer.

00:54All while commanding global screens like she owns them.

00:57Because she does.

00:58Tell me your job is glamorous without telling me your job is glamorous.

01:02Alla Bhat has gone from playing the cute college girl to embodying a laired, ruthless woman

01:07who cries yes, but also demands.

01:09Women in Indian cinema are burning that old script.

01:12And they are not looking back.