When I think of films with strong women characters in Bollywood I think of Mother India, Bandit Queen and Chandni Bar, but in more recent years apart from maybe Kya Kehna, I am at a loss to find films that were women oriented and yet successful!
Women characters in commercial cinema have largely fallen into various stereotypes - the sweet girl next door, the evil vamp, the virginal bride-to-be or the perfect item for male fantasy. All these are roles which cater to the male protagonist's story, to create a diversion or to glorify his machismo. I have nothing against playing the role of a girl 'dancing around trees' if it is taken seriously, but the problem with stereotypes is that they are most often not taken seriously. We, as women in the industry, should try to break these stereotypes if we want to be taken seriously as actors.
Can a woman be both good and bad? Can she be confused, angry and ugly as well as beautiful and kind? I think most women will agree that we can.
At the risk of being biased, I want to say that I loved playing the role of Chanda precisely because she was not a stereotype. Chanda is vulnerable and innocent when she discovers the power of sex and glamour. She’s on a journey to find what is most important to her, without being apologetic or owing any explanation to anyone except herself.
Chanda is honest to herself and that is her strength. In contrast to her, Paro is fiery and sexual from the start but she too journeys to discover what she does and oesn’t want in life and from men. Characters like Chanda and Paro exist in today’s India. I strongly feel that people need to acknowledge them because the conservative views of our patriarchal society are obviously still a serious threat to the lives of women, as we have seen recently from the attacks in Mangalore and Bangalore.
(Kalki played the character of Chandramukhi in Anurag Kashyap's Dev D and is an award winning playwright).