Female actress in lead role in bollywood movies: The portrayal of Indian women through commercial and parallel cinema

Cinema as a medium of communication has been serving on the both fronts, first through the changing roles of female and secondly it has inspired and motivated the entire society in the field of women empowerment by making a lot of women centric movies. Women have marked a considerable change in her image in society; they have no longer been self-sacrificing door-mats. They have emerged as a powerful, independent and confidant self who is bold enough in her expression of every emotion be it love, anger, passion, resentment, pleasure, elation or anything that she was known to be silent about. As we know that cinema is the reflection of our society, so the changes in the image of women can be seen in the movies down the age. Bollywood actresses are now getting bolder and more expressive apart from the sweet, simple, romantic, beautiful stereotypical image that she used to play. This paper is an attempt to find out how the role of female lovers in Hindi Cinema got changed over a period of time and explore its impact on the society in terms of empowering the women in India. A historical analysis through existing literature has been reviewed for the research findings.