I already did action film and rom-com lists to match this. My goal is, once you have finished the list of DVDs recommended on websites, or by the librarian, or handed to you in the DVD store, what next? And there is a surprisingly long list of films with strong female central characters in Hindi film.
I’m trying to avoid the big obvious ones like Arth or Mother India or Queen or even Astitva or Dangal or Kahaani, but the fun little ones where the lead actress(es) really get to show her talent. Ones you can enjoy if you want to see an interesting heroine you can relate to triumph against the odds, without feeling like you are drowning under social issues.
This isn’t exhaustive by any means, these are just the films I happen to have already reviewed (and which are good, I’m not including Noor for instance). Feel free to recommend your own favorites in the comments!
Aaja Nachle: I have to confess, part of the inspiration for this list was writing this review yesterday. It’s just such a great female role! Strong and smart and heroic, and gorgeous and talented. And Madhuri. A dancer who escaped her small town in India years earlier and now has returned to save the local theater.
Aaina : Juhi Chawla and Amrita Singh are sisters with a complicated relationship, made more complicated when they both fall in love with Jackie Shroff. But this isn’t a movie about Jackie, this is a movie about Juhi coming into her own and refusing to be the overlooked little sister any more.
Aiyyaa : I already listed this as an “overlooked rom-com”, but I don’t care, I’m double-dipping! It’s a really wonderful female lead film, Rani is there in every scene and is the whole movie, whether dealing with her pushy family, her strange job, or her massive crush on handsome Prithviraj.
Akira : Another double-dip, already on the “overlooked action films” list. But a wonderful female film as well, Sonakshi as a mostly silent heroine struggling with violence, truth, and love.
An Evening in Paris : A romance, so Shammi Kapoor has quite a bit to do, but it is really Sharmila Tagore’s movie. A double role, a conflicted heroine, an item song and an action scene, she has everything!
(Shammi surrounded by Sharmilas!)
Andaz : A classic film! A black and white movie usually sold as a love triangle, but in fact more about Nargis’ character and her conflicts than anything else. Such a wonderful character too, free and confident and modern, but still ruled by her heart.
(Look how tiny Raj’s head is compared to Nargis!)
Anjaam : Definitely a little known film, Madhuri and Shahrukh’s first film together completely over-shadowed by their later ones. It’s not a romance, it’s a battle between good and evil with Madhuri representing strong and powerful good. And it even has a woman’s prison sequence!
Chaalbaaz : Like Akira, it is a remake in which the genders are flipped. Meaning our heroine gets the double role, the fight scenes, the backstory, and everything else. While the heroes just stand there and look pretty. And 1980s Sunny Deol was very very pretty.
(Look at her towering over her men!)
Chandni : Like Andaz, it is sold as a romantic love triangle, but it is more about Sridevi’s title character, her finding herself and finding what her heart wants. And also, a tragic flower petal/helicopter accident.
(Such a gorgeous poster, a woman literally blossoming)
Daawat-E-Ishq : Another double-dip from the rom-com pile. A rom-com, yes, but one that focuses almost entirely on our heroine. The hero doesn’t even show up until after the first third of the movie, and her first failed romance.
(All the men kneeling before her, you betcha!)
Dil Aashna Hai : Shahrukh Khan’s first film role, but it’s not about him. It’s about Divya Bharti and the strong female cast that surrounds her. And the woman behind the camera as well, Hema Malini. And the completely ridiculous corny plot, stolen from the classic woman’s novel-turned-TV-movie, Lace.
(poster gets it wrong, all those male heads are barely in the movie, it is the little female heads to the right who rule)
Gupt : This is a ridiculous terrible movie. But our “hero” Bobby Deol is essentially meaningless, it is all about watching the Manisha Koirala-Kajol battle for his heart and body.
(Look at this ridiculous awesome song! Kajol is so much more turned on by having Bobby while Manisha watches than she would be if it was just, you know, Bobby)
Khoobsurat : A movie built for Sonam Kapoor! She doesn’t have the greatest range in the world, but if male stars can have tailor-made plots written to help them, why not women? She is wacky and fashionable and loud and Punjabi, and gets the hottest guy.
Mom : Very different, very wonderful. A thriller with middle-aged housewife Sridevi as our heroine and the most aggressive character. And I can’t say any more without spoiling it.
Naam Shabana : Not the greatest movie in a lot of ways, but very satisfying for how it shows the strength and growth of a woman, not a damsel in distress but a damsel-who-distresses-others. A female spy in training, learning tools of death not seduction.
Phillauri : A ghost story and a romance and a comedy all together. What to do if you marry a tree to break a curse, and the tree turns out to have a ghost in it who is now your “wife”? Every character gets a moment to shine, but it is all about Anushka’s title heroine in the end.
Saala Khadoos : A coach and athlete story in which the athlete just happens to be a woman. And in which romance is brilliantly neither included nor excluded, because her story is so much more than that.
Tumhari Sulu : A wonderful one to end with, Vidya Balan plays a housewife who finally finds her calling in middle age, as a radio call in show host, and will let nothing stop her, not her loving husband or needy son.
dontcallitbollywood 
There was a very forgettable (or maybe forgotten?) movie with Manisha Koirala and (I think) Rekha, who play two prostitutes (in charge of their lives, however). Or maybe this is a completely different movie, and the two prostitutes one was with Manisha and another younger (than Rekha) co-star. Look up Manisha’s filmography and it should strike you. Plus, talking of Manisha, I’d say both Khamoshi – The Musical, and Dil Se are films with very strong women’s roles.
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Bachke Rene Ki Baba, or something like that, I think is the movie you are thinking of. Rekha and Mallika Sherewat?
I agree about Khamoshi and Dil Se, but I think I would include Khamoshi and not Dil Se. Because Dil Se feels more like a two lead film, while Khamoshi is definitely about Manisha’s character over anyone else.
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Yeah, that Bachke film is the one I was thinking of with Rekha. So Mallika, not Manisha. But there was another one with Manisha and another actress, about sex trafficking from Nepal, I think.
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But in Dil Se the entire plot is driven by Manisha’s character. She is the one that we’re trying to understand throughout, she causes all the incidents that result in the story’s twists, and of course, she drives the ending. I’d vote for it to be included. (Maybe your Shahrukh love is blinding you to Manisha’s importance. 🙂 )
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There are just so many if you don’t limit it to “woman-centric” movies, and especially if you go back to the earlier times before the Khan era. Off the top of my head, I can think of Bandini, Milan, Guide, Madhumati, Seeta aur Geeta, Guddi, etc., etc. Now maybe you’ll say these are not exactly “little known”, but you’ve included Chandini and Chalbaaz, so that argument falls through. Heck, even your despised Devdas has two very strong women’s roles. Basically all the films from before the 1980’s had strong women’s roles, that is, the heroine had equal importance in the story as the hero. Some more: Aradhana, or that other Sharmila Tagore weepy with Rajesh Khanna. You can just include the entire filmographies of actresses like Nutan, Vyjayantimala, Waheeda, even Hema Malini and of course Sri Devi. Sri Devi especially, just did not take films where she was not the central character. And before them actresses like Leela Chitnis, Suchitra Sen. How about Amrapali (Vyjayantimala)? Meera with Hema Malini. Or Razia Sultan. Even Silsilla had two strong women’s roles. So many.
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Yes! I was just looking at an older post where we had a similar discussion, and landed on the realization that the late 90s/early 2000s were probably the worst time for actresses in Hindi film history. Today’s progress, with Anushka producing and starring in her own movies and Deepika getting roles like Piku and so on, is really just rewinding the clock to where it used to be.
When I started looking at my film reviews list (which is how I put this together, just looked at what I had reviewed), there were so many more I could have included. I left out Lamhe, only because Anil’s character’s journey is equal to Sridevi’s, and Noor just because of quality, and Sujata because I felt like the heroine was too passive, but those are really minor quibbles. So many films were built around the heroine, or at least had a heroine equal in importance to the hero.
Truly, I blame Femina Miss India. When the beauty queen and model actresses became popular in the late 90s, they just didn’t have the ability to carry the same kind of roles. And they weren’t given time to build that ability, they were thrown into huge films and important roles right from the start, with the assumption that the audience would already know them from the ads and so on. Like, Josh for instance. Aish was supposed to be a co-lead with an equally complicated journey as Shahrukh, and that was just a ridiculous expectation for someone in only their first few movies. So the movie ended up being sold as a Shahrukh film instead and the female character’s journey was lost.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 7:59 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, the 80’s were pretty bad, too.That’s when the heroine’s importance began to go down.
More than Femina Miss India, I blame the trend to get away from family oriented stories. When the movies had family stories, it was impossible not to have strong women’s roles, since women are so central to a family, whether in good or evil roles. Heck, even Salman’s “debut” movie, Biwi Hai To Aisi, is all about Rekha’s character. Are we supposed to consider it “regressive” because it deals with how a new daughter-in-law makes space for herself in her new family? No doubt the current army of “feminist” “journalists” will have reams of columns ready to tell us just that. But look at it according to the criteria you’ve laid out — Rekha’s is the central character. While she doesn’t go on a “character arc” herself, she makes everyone else go on one, finding redemption, realization, or epiphany, as appropriate. She certainly gets to display a range of highly disparate emotions and actions. And it’s not even a particularly memorable movie! I mean that it was a routine story done in a routine way — there were a ton of similar movies being made then.
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Good point. And it kind of relates back to the discussion we have been having about Malayalam films and how they are constantly bringing in interchangeable new actresses. In the older films, which were about the cast as a whole, the heroines had equal part to the hero, and so did older character actors like Thilakan and Innocent, and so on. But now films are more and more a “hero’s journey”, meaning all the other performers become interchangeable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “family” movie, even something like Ittefaq managed to handle 3 equal leads with them each having strong parts. Versus, say, Aiyaary which ended up being just about the two male leads with every other character being forgettable and forgotten by the plot, including the supposed villains. It feels like the loss is of ensemble casts in general.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 11:11 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh, yes, that’s why all the Hindi actors who played villains had to move to Telugu films. 🙂
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Speaking of villain actors, Prakash Raj is one where I really see this. In Hindi films, he’s used as the general villain. But if you look at his Tamil and Telugu work, he plays the lead in so many movies! Or at least the co-lead. He can be the father in the family drama, the villain with a complex backstory in an ensemble action film, the wise mentor to the hero in a romance, or even the lead in his own romance. There is just so much more space for ensemble films in other industries, and so much space for these not-hero type actors. I’d love to do a similar list to this with films that are lead by older men or women, but it would be depressingly short. Really just SuperNani and Do Dooni Char (sp?). And a bunch of Amitabh stuff, because films are always built around him no matter his age.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 11:32 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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People like to make fun of the Rajshri type of family movie nowadays, but really — can you imagine MPK without Bhagyashree, or HAHK without Madhuri? It’s not just the actresses, it’s the roles themselves that are important, and strong. HSSH was much more of an ensemble effort, but then again, could that story have happened without Reema Lagoo’s mother character? She was the driving force. In contrast, PRDP was very much a Salman movie, with hardly any scope for Sonam. At least Swara had more scope to act.
On Ash in Josh, remember that she was fine in Iruvar as her debut movie. So maybe it’s the difference between having Mani Ratnam direct her as opposed to Mansoor Khan.
And Manisha had so many impressive roles during the 90’s, so it seems it’s the caliber of the actress that makes a difference, rather than what decade the films were made in.
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Exactly with Manisha! She did wonderfully in the 90s (a decade I think gets a bad rap in terms of female representation on film They may have been silly movies, but the heroines had a lot to do in them), and then her career fell off a cliff in the 2000s, besides Lajja it was all art films or low budget stuff from then on. The biggest part was in Company, as Ajay’s girlfriend. Which was a great role and a great performance, but it was no where near as prominent as she was in even something like Mann.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 11:18 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My theory about Aishwarya is that she does much better when she’s dubbed. She’s surprisingly good in her Tamil movies – which is a combination of two things 1. her voice is dubbed, somehow I haate her dialog delivery. It is extremely artificial!
2. The acting work is shared amongst a lot of people.
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I would also add that she is very good at physical acting, when she focuses just on that. Her facial expressions and gestures have surprised me on occasion. I wonder if knowing her dialogue will be dubbed allows her to do a better job with those areas?
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 1:58 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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As I find Aishwarya more natural even in South Indian media interviews (sooooo much less ice queen-y), my theory about her is that she holds the Bombay press/industry responsible for the trauma and turmoil of the pre-Abhishek years and seems more comfortable around South Indian film crews and press (possibly because they treat her with more reverence).
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You find more female leads in parallel or art cinema, maybe that’s a reason I am drawn to those formats.
All female cast
Angry Indian Goddesses
15 Park Avenue (Konkana is the lead, also Shabana Azmi and I think Waheedaji, in a really accurate portrayal of schizophrenia, directed by Aparna Sen, also female. Notice how an all female cast means the topic has to be female centric? Well I refer ppl to this movie who want to see an entirely female movie on a universal topic, I.e. not necessity female topic.)
Two female leads
Dorr
No One killed Jessica
Others
Namaste London (I thought it was cute when it came out, not sure if it holds up to a rewatch)
Dhobi Ghat (Monica Dogra is the lead, though Prateik stole the movie from her, and Aamir is subtle and good and relatable in this one)
Khoobsurat #1 (Rekha is great)
Umrao Jaan #1 (also Rekha, but maybe this is on your std list)
Mother India (is Nargis the lead?)
Amu (Konkana is the lead, the one time I have seen an Indian actor employing an American ascent to depict an Indian from America. Duh, about time? Plus an accurate depiction of middle class Indian diaspora life in LA/OC, kinda of like Patiala house does for London diaspora life.)
Aarth (shabana is really the lead)
?? ( forgot the name, the Bhatt movie about Parveen Babi, Sushmita Sen plays her and is the lead)
Bandit Queen (Seema Biswas)
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Chameli (is Kareena the lead? Or equal with Rahul Bose?)
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Lipstick under my Burkha (4 female leads)
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But now we are veering strongly into the artsy usual list (according to my totally made up rules). I am more interested in the mainstream lighter films that don’t get credit for being “woman’s” pictures, but actually are. A reminder that a film with a strong central female performance can be a popular hit as well, and also just fun to watch.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 10:08 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t know, I haven’t seen it 😦
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 9:41 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The only Parveen movie I can think of is the Shiney Ahuja-Soha Ali Khan one. Which of course I can’t watch because Shiney makes me want to throw up.
Khoobsurat #1 reminds me of what Moimeme and I are were talking about, much more common it was to have films with a main female character before the recent era. Khoobsurat wasn’t sold as an art film or an issue film or anything like that, it was just a fun film that happened to have a heroine in the lead. Guddi too, and even Dream Girl.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 9:36 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Only about half of what I listed above are arts films. E.g. No one killed Jessica, the Rekha films, Namaste London, all mainstream. And if Dorr, Lipstic, and esp Chameli are excluded, then so should Phillauri be, imo.
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Oh yeah, agree on half of the films, it was the Lipstick Under My Burka that seemed a bit over the line. Again, based on my totally made up rules 🙂 Just because it barely got a release in theaters. While Phillauri got a decent sized release and promotion and box office. And I think Dorr did too, and also Chameli? Just based on how much I was hearing them talked about at the time.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 10:56 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Not suggesting you add it to the list (did it make it to the action movies one?), but I re-watch One 2 Ka 4 for Juhi as much as for Shah Rukh–since he’s kind of a jerk in that movie, albeit a cute one. But Juhi gets to do everything! She’s a cute but amorous pursuer, she’s a fun mom/cool aunty figure, she’s a femme fatale/gangter’s moll, and a cop/action hero. Surprisingly, she was pretty good at the action stuff. Did she do action in any of her other movies?
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One 2 Ka 4 doesn’t fit anywhere! It’s got too much romance to be an action movie, and too much action to be a romance. And too much action and romance to be a family movie.
Agree about Juhi though. I have this vague memory of seeing her as a strong fighting married woman in some movie from the late 90s, but I cannot find it in her filmography, so maybe I dreamed it or maybe it was some other 90s actress.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 9:38 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I thought Juhi was fabulous in One 2 ka Four, and really deserved to win the Best Actress Filmfare, rather than Kajol for K3G. But there, 12k4 was a flop, and K3G had Karan Johar pushing it, so the result was a foregone conclusion.
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I recommend Hum ha raahi pyaar ke as well. I loved Juhi in it, and the film was mostly about her. Aamir was the love interest 😉 Also Hasi to Phasee – Parineeti was quite the front and center and she had more screenspace than Siddharth I think.
Its lovely that Sonam and Anushka are producing. That is the only way they can control the content of the movies that are offered to them. Also, Sonam is a voracious reader – hence she is ahead on the book adaptations which have nicer women plots.
In Malayalam, I think what happened was that Manju Warrier quit cold turkey in 1998. As in, she had to get out of all movie sshe had signed as she got married. That created a big void – I know some of the movie where roles were rewritten because the actress who came in couldn’t match her. Then Samyuktha Varma came in and filled that void but she quit as well around 2003. I’m guessing all the filmmakers thought it was just easy to ignore the heroine and make roles for men, cos then they don;t have to go hunting for actresses to fill it. Kavya and Navya were too young then. Now we have gotten to a point where its just laziness – to write a good female role and cast a good actress – so much easier to schedule a movie around one person alone (the hero)
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How about the original khoobsurat which had Rekha in the lead. I agree with Moimeme about older films and you most def don’t include films like Mili and Guddi in your lists enough. That’s not fair on bollywood noobs. Or non-noob fans.
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This is just the movies I’ve reviewed! No judgement beyond that. I haven’t reviewed Guddi because I haven’t gotten around ot it yet (although Jaya’s birthday is coming up!), and I haven’t reviewed Mili because I am afraid to watch it because I think it might lead to ugly crying. Maybe that will be my birthday present to Jayaji, finally giving in and letting her make me miserable.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 2:44 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You’re going to rethink everything you’ve learnt about hindi heroines after you’re done with Mili and Guddi!
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I have seen Guddi at least once even if I didn’t write about it, but to be fair on that go round I was more interested in the Shiva/Parvati and star images and stars kind of messages, less female heroines.
Mili though, I don’t need young Jaya making me feel sad! I already get enough of that with Sholay!
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That’s just her face
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You mean Jaya? It’s really true. Even in Kal Ho Na Ho, she has these small moments that just break your heart. I wish she acted more.
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 3:16 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s just her face. And it made her a major star too! Abhiman sold for her, not her husband
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You should add Uphaar to the list of “young Jaya” movies. Then you can start by watching Guddi, get into a happy frame of mind, then watch Mili, cry your eyes out, then watch Uphaar to end on an upbeat note. That will also give you quite a range of Jaya’s acting.
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Without any strong Female character,Film never click.To support this we can observe any Indian movie which appealed audience.
Films like Don (Amithab) had strong Heroine Role (Zeenath) and we cannot Ignore Bahubali (war of Bahu and Saas )
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I didn’t follow all the discussion-but there’s a third Khubsoorat featuring Urmila & Sanjay Dutt-she turning from an ugly duckling to swan story. Then there’s Fiza, Zubaida(not happy films)-Karishma’s show pieces. Khoon Bhari Mang of Rekha is the avenging angel story with Kabir Bedi. I was trying to think of a good role of Kajol outside the rom com-famous movie types and there are none. Gupt & Dushman are the only exceptions. Other than We are Family(yawn fest), Gulab Gang(Juhi is the villain, Madhuri is the heroine), I have not seen a multi heroine film in Hindi where the focus is on the women & the men are love interests/support systems. Wonder why they never have a Kandukondein Kandukondein kinda movie. Maybe the new Kareena-Sonam movie might change the tide.
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Now you got me curious and I took a spin through Kajol’s filmography. She has a ton of really strong co-lead roles, like Yeh Dillagi or Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, and there’s also Yeh Dillagi and Fanaa where she was more of the lead.
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In Fanaa, she’s caught in the cross fire of a terrorist & her story picks up when Aamir makes the reentry. Definitely co-lead in the same way as you described Manisha in Dil Se. I don’t remember Yeh Dillagi much, but somehow I remember it as a Saif film. My main grouse with Kajol’s filmography is that she’s always the woman someone falls in love with or the woman who falls in love. Romance & love are the driving theme for most of her characters except Dushman. Why hasn’t she tried a Fiza , Dil Se or a Chameli. I’m sure there would be filmmmakers who would have written roles for her. But her own choice always seems to veer towards the safe option of the girl/woman in love.
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Well, her most recent role was differently different, in VIP2. Maybe she is starting a new phase of her career?
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Hopefully yes. But that choice is kinda obvious rt? She can’t be the romancing sweetheart anymore-unless it is opposite SRK himself. In fact I would have loved to see her romance a younger man -a la Ash in ADHM-going against the conventional roles expected at her age/phase. I remember reading in some magazine that she was the first choice for Josh & Dil Se but didn’t want to be SRK’s sister or dying lover. My point being that she always chose the conventional heroine role(except Gupt) in her hay days & now when she’s in the older/matured phase of life, her choices are again the safe ones. And there’s always some other major actor to share the acting burden. I heard she’s doing a single mom role in some upcoming movie. Let’s see if she can pull it off on her own.
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I don’t know, I feel like it’s not so much Kajol chose to be the romantic lead, as though she has always chosen the safe commercial choice, chosen to be a commercial actress. Which I have to think really was a choice, considering her family background she certainly knew there were other ways to go. It’s hard to do the art films, not just the acting part of it, but that you have to take a risk and work with people you don’t know as well as the commercial types, and risk losing your fans by doing an unusual role, and all the rest of it. Dushman was a non-romantic role, but in a way that the audience could accept, and so was Gupt. And I think you are right, now that she is older, it is going to be the non-romantic roles that are more acceptable to the audience, so that is the way she is going to go.
On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 8:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Were Josh & Dil Se art movies ? And I don’t think it was a question of ‘art’ films necessarily & losing fans. Madhuri did a GajaGamini-a film that no one understood, Mrithyudand etc & her fandom was still intact. Again not saying that a heroine HAS to do an artsy movie to prove a point. I loved Kajol during younger days. Just that now, I can see that she has done just one kind of role always & gets called as the ‘best actress’ of her generation. Overrated is the word I want to use for Kajol.
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Maybe not “art”, but risky. Which doesn’t mean you necessarily would lose fans and status, but it was a risk. Kajol seems to have chosen to remain within a safe commercial arena and work very hard for a short period, and then get married and retire.
What I find fascinating about Kajol is that her commercial roles still showed this amazing talent, which makes you wonder what she could have done if she had taken on the more risky parts, or even just worked for a longer time (her full time working career was only about 5 years long, 94-99). And, for me, being able to bring that talent into even the simplest silliest heroine parts shows more skill than using it in the films where the script supported the character. Of course we can’t know for sure, because she hasn’t done one of those really intense realistic parts yet, but it seems like it is there.
On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 9:31 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh I agree. She is a wonderful actress & seemed real even in the glossiest Bollywood movie in a way that other heroines didn’t. Just wish she had taken her own talents a little more seriously & ventured out a little more. She’s the Kareena of 90s.
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You need not worry about Mili making you depressed.It’s not that sad.It ends just like Mohanlal’s Gandhinagar 2nd street.A possibility that things will turn out well in the future.I had recommended Sharmila’s Talash (1969) where she plays a double role sometime earlier.I’m going to spoil it for you since it’s not at all likely that you’ll find a subtitled copy.Sharmila is a heiress and does not want to married for her money.So she devises a test for her beau Rajendra Kumar where she appears in two guises -one as an uneducated village belle and the other as his boss’s sophisticated daughter to whom he can’t say no for fear of losing his job.It’s such a role change to have the heroine put the hero through the paces.
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Sharmila’s Talash sounds kind of similar to her An Evening in Paris, or Raakhee’s Sharmilee. A double role for the actress, with the hero caught between two choices. Such a rich idea, I can’t think of a recent movie in which a heroine had a double role like that. Except maybe “Tanu Weds Manu Returns”
On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 8:47 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Shashi and Shammi are gentlemen by comparison.They each fall for one of the twins and stick by their choice even when they meet the other twin.Rajendra Kumar falls for both Sharmilas.He’s shown to be terribly ambitious too.He wants to have the cake and eat it too.To be fair, he does feel terribly guilty for being attracted to (and kissing) Sharmila v2.0 while being engaged to Sharmila, the village girl.He knows that if he breaks the engagement the saintly,pure village girl would commit suicide.Ooh, what a dilemma.
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Oh! I remembered another one! Satyam Shivan Sundaram! Although in that one Shashi is THE WORST and she has to pretend to be too people because he thinks the first one is too “ugly” for him to be with.
On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 1:18 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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