Tired of Kangana Ranaut’s constant antics? Her constant feuds with everyone and their grandmother, her wish to direct her own biopic and her constant assertion that she’s self-made and that she’s a three-time National Award winner.
It’s safe to say her actions and words elicit a “WTF” response every single time.
Now before anyone comes at me with their virtual pitchforks, I have to admit that I was an ardent, rabid Kangana Ranaut fan for years and still very much am. She is inarguably one of the greatest thespians Indian multiplexes ever deigned to have and her body of work thus far is unparalleled.
I was waiting with bated breath for the theatrical release of Marnikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi but by the time the film hit the screens, I already suffered from chronic Kangana Ranaut fatigue and couldn’t bring myself to watch it.
I still admire her riot grrrl spirit, her individualism and of course, her incredible acting skills, but there are at least five other self-made, contemporary Bollywood actresses who don’t want to slash and burn everything in their path to superstardom.
5. Kalki Koechlin
The beautiful French bichette who is, as she put it, “white on the outside and brown on the inside” grew up in Tamil Nadu before venturing out to Bombay where she juggled between writing and producing envelope-pushing stage plays and acting in zeitgeist-tapping films such as Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D and Ayan Mukherji’s mitron masala, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Her pièce de résistance though is her turn as a libertine woman with cerebral palsy in A Margherita with A Straw which garnered her a National Film Award. When not acting, Koechlin voices her support for a number of social causes such as women’s rights and Bombay’s unmitigated air pollution levels.
Best work: Margherita With A Straw
4. Radhika Apte
Radhika Apte got her moniker, “the Netflix Girl”, on Indian social media last year by appearing in some of the digital platform’s most groundbreaking work namely the social commentary horror show, Ghoul and the mind-blowingly brilliant crime drama, Sacred Games. A far cry from her early days as math whiz in Pune.
Best work: Sacred Games
3. Sanya Malhotra
One would be hard pressed to find a shorter, more impressive film resume than Sanya Malhotra’s. In 2016, she starred in the blockbuster behemoth that was Dangal where she transformed herself completely to a small-town female wrestler before following that up with Badhaai Ho, the funniest, smartest film to come out of Bollywood since Andaaz Apna Apna. But her most exciting project till date releases next month, Photograph, acclaimed filmmaker, Ritesh Batra’s sequel-of-sorts to The Lunchbox.
Best work: Dangal
2. Vidya Balan
The Lil Kim to all these Nickis and Cardis, Vidya Balan is arguably the first, self-made Bollywood actress who’s able to carry a film entirely, and successfully, on her own without a Khan (she has never worked with any of them) or any other major Bollywood actor. Instead, she depends wholly on her extraordinary acting skills and her penchant for picking excellent films like the cinema verite-aping Kahaani, the erotically charged Dirty Picture and the culturally significant Lage Raho Munna Bhai.
Best work: Kahaani
1. Zaira Wasim
Zaira Wasim’s remarkable story is the stuff of fairy tales. At the tender age of 15, she was plucked from the sleepy town of Srinagar and thrust into the phantasmagoric world of Bollywood to appear as a lead in a film starring none other than Aamir Khan! The film in question, Dangal, not only became the highest grossing film in Indian history but her powerful début performance garnered her an award that most Bollywood superstars who’ve been in the business for thirty years still don’t have – the highly coveted National Film Award. Wasim followed that up with 2017’s Secret Superstar, a low-budget film about a brave Muslim girl seeking self-autonomy, that miraculously became one of China’s biggest box office hits that year at a time when the country is placing its Muslim Uighyr population in concentration camps. Such is the power of cinema and evidently, Zaira Wasim. This year, the girl wonder will be seen playing opposite Farhan Akhtar and Priyanka Chopra in indie auteur Shonali Bose’s (Amu, Margherita with a Straw) The Sky Is Pink. I don’t know about anyone else but I can’t wait to see Zaira ascend to higher planes.
Best film: Yet to come.
ABOVE ARTWORK: RACHNA RAVI
