The familiar question about whether Hindi cinema will ever accept women as box-office protagonists got a firm answer from Manoj Bajpayee: the shift is already underway, and it has been for years.
The long rise of the female lead
In a discussion on whether the big screen remains male-dominated, Bajpayee argued that female actors have been headlining substantial films for a long time. He named Vidya Balan and Kajol as examples rather than exceptions.
“The heroine has been coming as a hero for a long time,” Bajpayee said, as quoted by The Times of India. Balan’s filmography includes The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and Sherni; Kajol’s includes Dushman and other projects built around complex female characters.
OTT changes the arithmetic
Bajpayee linked the increased frequency of women-led stories to streaming economics. The financial stakes on OTT projects, he said, are not as high as those attached to theatrical releases, making the decision to back a female-led title easier.
The point is not that theatrical releases have stopped producing women-led hits; it is that streaming has lowered the cost of experimentation. A project that might have been judged too risky for a wide theatrical release can now find an audience with less financial exposure.
He also broadened the point beyond gender. Male actors who were overlooked by mainstream cinema, he said, are now “getting so much respect on OTT,” with roles bringing both recognition and a measure of financial stability.
Why the framing matters
For Bollywood Chronicle readers, the remark matters because it changes the baseline. The industry often treats women-led films as an emerging risk to be tested. The record is stronger than that: Balan’s Kahaani worked theatrically around a pregnant protagonist; Kajol’s Dushman anchored a revenge drama well before the streaming boom.
- Vidya Balan’s The Dirty Picture and Kahaani were theatrical bets that found an audience.
- Kajol’s Dushman shows complex female-led commercial cinema predates OTT.
- Streaming’s lower per-title risk has made such stories more frequent, Bajpayee argued.
- The same economics gave overlooked male actors a second run.
That distinction is why the actor’s correction has staying power. It separates audience demand from release economics. The question “when will women be accepted” assumes demand is unproven; the record of Balan and Kajol suggests the barrier has often been financing and distribution confidence, not viewers.
The actor’s own recent work reflects the shift. Gajab Raat, a suspense thriller co-starring Divya Dutta and directed by Ritesh Shah, premiered on Netflix on October 23.
The real test ahead is whether theatrical buyers apply the confidence streaming has shown. If women-led OTT successes are treated as a lower-risk class while theatrical budgets still concentrate elsewhere, the debate will keep resurfacing. The more telling signal will be the release scales and budgets given to female-led theatrical films over the next two years.
Source: The Times of India
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