Bollywood Brides

Malaika is considered an “item girl” and has occasionally played a vamp,but never a heroine in Hindi movies. Her continued popularity is perhaps indicative of an interesting trend in Bollywood where female actors are finding acceptance with audiences even after marriage. Until recently,most heroines,aware that they had a short span within which to enjoy stardom,elected to remain unmarried. The common belief was that Indian audiences had a paradoxical notion of their heroines as unsullied objects of desire. Any heroine who decided to get married was considered to have committed professional suicide. The ones that waited until their careers had waned often ended up marrying married men or older divorcees.

Some starlets,and even a few successful heroines,who had had enough of the vagaries of the film industry,got married while they were relatively young. But that meant forsaking their careers as their husbands and in-laws found it difficult to accept a woman who cavorted on screen with other men,often scantily dressed.

Very few of our female stars married at the peak of their careers and were able to sustain their stardom. Kajol sparked the trend but only dabbled in cinema after marriage. Madhuri and Sridevi,happily married mothers with kids,have attempted comebacks with varying degrees of success. Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan are emblematic of a new and encouraging trend in Bollywood. Marrying for love at a point of time when they are still regarded as top stars. They do “bold” roles and audience interest does not seem to have flagged despite their marital status. Interestingly,a few heroines such as Chitrangadha and Aditi Rao Hydari have entered the film industry as married women and carved a niche for themselves as mainstream heroines. Others like Mallika Sherawat only became stars after being divorced,and managed to get the pulse of the desi male racing.

It is a welcome sign that some Indian husbands acknowledge their wives are professional actors and encourage them to pursue their careers rather than stay home and breed. It is even more heartening that our audiences are finally able to separate the real and reel life persona of a female film star.

The Bollywood heroine has come a long way. Sadly,she still enjoys a woefully short career while her male counterparts manage to dominate the box office for decades. I look forward to the day when married heroines with kids will rule the roost the way Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez do in the West. That would be a truly welcome idea to lift from Hollywood.

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