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In a year when money ruled the marquee with big stars opting for blockbusters, some remarkably content-driven women-centric movies made a big splash in Bollywood with box office collections, among them Alia Bhatt, Sunny Leone, Kangana Ranaut. Unlike the over-hyped star-studded films tailor-made to pull more audience to theatres, these films balanced their ‘masala’ quotient with good content. 2014 broke new grounds by giving heroines the required push to embrace scripts revolving around female protagonists. (Bollywood Hungama)
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Erotic-horror ‘Ragini MMS 2′ with Sunny Leone in the lead role was one of the most successful women-led horror films of the year spinning more than Rs 46 crore as box office collections. (Bollywood Hungama)
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Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Highway’, a visual treat cataloguing the landscapes of Northern India, in the backdrop of a kidnap drama involving the young daughter of a rich man, who finds freedom in her captivity. This nuanced film, chronicling the inner journey and anguish of the captor and the hostage, turned out to be Alia Bhatt’s most mature performance till date. (Box office collections: Rs 30.61 cr) (Bollywood Hungama)
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In March came Vikas Bahl’s ‘Queen’, a heart-warming and disarming journey of a naive Rajouri girl Rani (played by Kangana Ranaut to perfection), who embarks on a solo honeymoon after being dumped by her fiance. The film took the industry by surprise with its solidly-written role for Kangana, coupled with first-rate performances by Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao. ‘Queen’, which premiered at Busan International Film festival, grossed Rs 61 crore in box office collections, a rare feat achieved by small-budget movie with a woman in the lead. (Bollywood Hungama)
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his was followed by Madhuri-Juhi Chawla starrer ‘Gulab Gang’ (released on March 8). The film revolved around an all-female vigilante group led by activist Sampat Pal in Bundelkhand (UP) but it was not exactly a box office success. (Box office collections: Rs 14.58 cr) (Bollywood Hungama)
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In August, came Rani Mukherjee starrer ‘Mardaani’ which broke into the male bastion touching on the ugly world of child trafficking. Rani played a tough cop chasing a sex trade kingpin in the hard-hitting film, which was praised for its tight and compelling narrative. Her performance as a no-nonsense Mumbai crime branch officer lent strength to her character. (Box office collections: Rs 35.82 cr) (Bollywood Hungama)
With collections of women centric films on the rise, the trend that is easily noticed is that such films that once had a very niche viewing audience are fast gaining acceptance amongst the audience. Here are the other also-rans: </br><br> Priyanka Chopra starrer 'Mary Kom' – Rs 30.6 crore (Image: Bollywood Hungama) -
Vidya Balan-starrer ‘Bobby Jasoos’ did decent business at the box office. The film was praised for the sincerity of Balan’s performance as a naive but ambitious detective in the making in Hyderabad. (Box office collections: Rs 11.74 cr) (Bollywood Hungama)
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The year came to an end with much-talked about Sonam Kapoor-Fawad Khan starrer ‘Khoobsoorat’, which did decent business at the box office. In a role reversal of the sorts, Pakistani actor Fawad Khan emerged as the new eye candy with his female fans flocking to theatres for this romantic comedy. (Box office collections: Rs 24.75 cr) (Bollywood Hungama)
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