Bollywood has found two easy ways to write women: make them desirable or make them formidable. The first gives us women designed to be watched as eye candy. The second\u00a0allows\u00a0women to be admired as warriors\u2014survivors of something so brutal that their toughness becomes\u00a0their\u00a0whole character.<\/p>\n
While promoting her\u00a0latest\u00a0film\u00a0Gandhari, Tapsee Pannu talked about both. First, she said that filmmakers keep blaming the audience when women are objectified on screen. \u201cJanta maang rahi hai\u00a0(The people are asking for it),\u201d they claim, as if that ends the discussion.<\/p>\n
Pannu\u2019s\u00a0comments\u00a0come\u00a0amid the backlash over Buchi Babu Sana\u2019s\u00a0Peddi\u00a0and Yash\u2019s\u00a0Toxic.\u00a0Peddi\u00a0got Janhvi Kapoor into an \u201cobjectification\u201d row so heated that\u00a0Sana\u00a0had to apologise and re-edit scenes. The audience targeted the camera work, and the emphasis on the actor\u2019s body rather than the character itself, reflecting a male gaze narrative need.<\/p>\n
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On the other hand, in\u00a0Geetu Mohandas\u2019\u00a0Toxic, female characters were criticised as largely existing through glamour, sensuality, and their orbit around the male lead, Yash.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This portrayal isn\u2019t limited to two films. Similar complaints have followed big pan-India films for years. Box office hits like the\u00a0Pushpa\u00a0series,\u00a0KGF, and\u00a0Animal\u00a0(2023)\u00a0have shown women reduced to songs, lingering shots, or merely the hero\u2019s motivation. The problem is not that a woman cannot be glamorous\u00a0and\/or sexual. It is when that is all the film knows what to do with her.<\/p>\n
Meet the damsel not in distress\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only other way Bollywood seems to know how to show the female is with a\u00a0focus on the \u201cstrong woman\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of a strong woman has started looking almost like an abuse right now,\u201d Pannu\u00a0said\u00a0in an\u00a0India Today\u00a0interview. She pointed out how the label is narrowed down to intense and serious roles. \u201cYou cannot be strong and funny. You cannot be strong and soft,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Pannu\u2019s own films double as the case study.\u00a0Pink\u00a0(2016), Thappad\u00a0(2020),\u00a0Assi\u00a0(2026), and now\u00a0Gandhari\u00a0(2026), where she plays a mother turned avenger after her child is trafficked. Alia Bhatt\u2019s\u00a0Jigra\u00a0(2024)\u00a0runs on the same fuel, where she plays a sister\u00a0hellbent on saving\u00a0her brother. Similarly, in\u00a0Alpha\u00a0(2026), Bhatt plays a super-soldier in isolation since birth.<\/p>\n
Then there are films where women\u2019s entire performances are built around grinding through an institution that has wronged her. Take Yami Gautam in\u00a0Article 370\u00a0(2024)\u00a0or Rani Mukerji in\u00a0Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway\u00a0(2023).<\/p>\n
Now these are often good, important films. And I agree that a gun, a grievance, and monologues on empowerment do make impressive characters. However, it doesn\u2019t necessarily make them relatable every time. So when this becomes the dominant definition of female agency, something is lost.<\/p>\n
And this is where I sense the loss of the middle ground that used to exist.<\/p>\n