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Mirroring The Industry: Katrina in Tiger, Deepika in Pathan, Taapsee in Baby. Do we need more woman in action?
Imagine a crossover between Tiger franchise and Pathan with Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone on an espionage mission. Pinkvilla discusses the revival of action with women in lead.
Right from the 1900s, action as a genre is primarily fronted by the men in Bollywood. We have seen action stars in the film industry ranging from the He-Man Dharmendra to the angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan, from the Dabangg Salman Khan to Khiladi Akshay Kumar, from the lion, Ajay Devgn to the Greek god, Hrithik Roshan. But seldom has the industry opened doors for the women of the industry in this genre. Over the last 15 years, we have seen the multiple actresses speak about their will to spearhead an action film, but little has happened in that front.
In 2012, we got to see, Katrina Kaif ace in the action avatar as Zoya in Ek Tha Tiger and carried the legacy forward with Tiger Zinda Hai. Her independent action sequence in the second half of the film is still being spoken about and widely appreciated by audiences from all quarters. There’s Tiger 3 in the making at present and one hears that Zoya has presence and sequences as strong as it was in TZH. The actress showed the spark and conviction in her to front an action-packed film, and hopefully, that should happen soon with the Ali Abbas Zafar directed Super Soldier, wherein she plays India’s maiden superhero. She well might become the first in the recent few years to carry something in the action space on such a big scale. Probably, she might turn the tides for the potential of genre for the women of Bollywood.
Katrina Kaif's independent action sequence in the second half of Tiger Zinda Hai is still being spoken about and widely appreciated by audiences from all quarters. Tiger 3 expected to be equally strong
Just 3 years after Ek Tha Tiger came Baby, which was a turning point of Taapsee Pannu’s career. Though a brief role in terms of screen time, the actress performed the action in a way that it ended up being one of the most spoken about scenes of the film. The appreciation to her character also led to a spin off on her character in Naam Shabana, and yet again, she showed her potential in being an action star. Since then, we have not really seen her in the action avatar, though, we do feel, it might be a fruitful attempt to explore action on a bigger scale with Taapsee. She has been inclined towards content driven films, and author backed roles, but switching with an action film once in two years is definitely not a bad idea.
Deepika Padukone too tried to explore the action space in Chandni Chowk To China, however, that film was a failure, but since then, a lot has changed and she has emerged one of the most bankable female actors of her generation. We got to see her do some action in Race 2 and Bajirao Mastani as well. Next up for her in the action avatar is Pathan, wherein she plays the character of an agent. If inside reports are to be believed, the actress is on a mission to kick some serious butts through Pathan, with multiple action scenes – ranging from fist fights to bike and car chases. And this well might pave the path for even Deepika to take the legacy forward and explore some contemporary action films and start a movement in Bollywood. We just hope, she takes a backseat from the heavy space of cinema, and take it easy for next few years by balancing the line up with action and light hearted rom-coms.
And then there is Rani Mukerji, fronting an action franchise like Mardaani, playing cop, Shivani Shivaji Roy. She is probably the only only who has a solo action franchise running successfully under her name, and we might just get to see her in the dabangg cop avatar again with Mardaani 3. It's a successful franchise, made on limited budget, and it's yet another indiciation of how one can push the bar in this genre with the sellable A-List female stars. It's all about the right presentation and packaging to get the ball rolling.
How about a solo crossover film in a parallel universe with Katrina Kaif as Zoya from Tiger franchise and Deepika Padukone's spy avatar from Pathan?
There’s also Kangana Ranaut, who is stepping into the full-fledged action space with Dhakkad, after she tasted some sort of success in the period drama, Manikarnika too, which yet again speaks about the potential of this genre with even the women. We hear, Sara’s track in Ashwatthama too requires her to do a lot of action. One often argues that action films require big budget and it’s difficult to recover the same with a female actor. But, have we tried enough? Action films fail with the men too, and it’s all about the well made content even in this genre. A well packaged action film has a loyal audience, be it with men or the women, and all that it takes to get them excited is a good trailer and probably, one chartbuster song. Of course, for starters, budgets for female led actioners can't be as much as a Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan or Akshay Kumar film, but, one can mount their films on a reasonable scale and get the returns.
While YRF is making a spy universe at present, with Salman Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan to start with, how about a solo crossover film in a parallel universe between Zoya from Tiger franchise and Deepika from Pathan? Wouldn’t it be an altogether different experience to see the women teaming up on an espionage mission? Even Taapsee from Baby is in the same world of spies, but well, of course, it’s not possible to include her in the YRF’s universe of spies. While Katrina, Deepika can lead the path in this world of cinema, we hope it motivates the young actors to take up this space and make it boom. It has the potential and we wait to see a female action star come from Bollywood finding a place in the elite testosterone driven list.
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