Manoj Bajpayee: Vidya, Kajol Prove Women Have Long Led Bollywood
Manoj Bajpayee says Vidya Balan and Kajol prove women have led Hindi cinema for years, and explains why OTT is accelerating the shift.
Manoj Bajpayee did not treat women-led Bollywood as a new wave. During a discussion about female actors in mainstream Hindi cinema, he was asked whether women still wait longer for the same acceptance as male protagonists. His answer was that the change is already visible — and has been for years.
He pointed to two filmographies as evidence: Vidya Balan and Kajol.
“The heroine has been coming as a hero for a long time,” Bajpayee said. “It is taking its time, but it’s happening.”
A shift that was already building
Bollywood is still largely associated with male protagonists, but Bajpayee framed the female-led shift as gradual and long-running. Vidya Balan has headlined titles such as The Dirty Picture, Kahaani, No One Killed Jessica, Tumhari Sulu and Sherni. Kajol has carried projects such as Helicopter Eela, The Trial, The Good Wife and Dushman.
The examples he chose are instructive. Balan’s Kahaani and Sherni put a woman at the centre of a thriller and a social drama; Kajol’s Dushman and The Trial did the same across formats.
That history matters for an audience that follows stars as closely as films. It means the current surge of women-first stories on streaming is an acceleration of an older trend, not a sudden industry conversion.
Why OTT changes the maths
Bajpayee credited streaming platforms with making women-led projects more frequent. His explanation was financial: streaming productions carry lower stakes than big theatrical bets, so more such stories can be commissioned without the same pressure.
The economics work differently from a wide theatrical release, where a film has to recover its cost at the box office. On streaming, platforms can take a longer view across subscriptions and libraries, which gives mid-sized and female-led ideas more room.
He also said the same platform reset has helped male actors who struggled to find substantial roles in mainstream cinema. On OTT, those actors have found greater visibility, respect and a more stable living, he added.
- Women-led films are not an OTT invention: Vidya Balan and Kajol built careers on them well before streaming scaled up.
- Lower financial risk on streaming platforms makes it easier to greenlight female-led projects more frequently.
- The OTT reset has also given overlooked male actors more visibility, respect and steady work.
The streaming connection continues
Bajpayee’s own recent work sits in that streaming landscape. Gajab Raat, a suspense thriller directed by Ritesh Shah and co-starring Divya Dutta, premiered on Netflix on October 23.
The comment is a useful reminder to watch whose stories get funded — and to notice when lower platform stakes change who gets to lead. Distribution shapes representation as much as star power does.
Source: ABP Live English
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