2025 looks like a bleak year for the leading ladies, at least in Hindi cinema. Worldwide, too, the really brawny ladies are hardly poised to shine this year: Meryl Streep has no release this year, while her desi counterpart Shabana Azmi will be shining on the OTT platform in Farhan Akhtar’s Dabba Cartel. Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Katrina Kaif have zero releases this year. Put simply, there are no big Shero films coming up in 2025.
There are exceptions, though.
1. Alia Bhatt: She is arguably the one Bollywood queen who will lord over the marquee this year, first in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War, where she plays the centre of Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal’s attention. Bhansali has modelled Alia’s looks on Vyjayanthimala. In Alpha, which comes at the end of the year, Alia acquires an action Shero’s avatar.
2. Priyanka Chopra: Straddling both the Bollywood and Hollywood hemispheres, Priyanka has coming up from the West, Ilya Naishuller’s Heads Of State and Frank E. Flowers’s The Bluff where she plays a pirate. In India, she has just signed S S Rajamouli’s untitled jungle adventure opposite Mahesh Babu, for which she has apparently been paid the astronomical amount of Rs 30 crores.
3.Samantha Ruth Prabhu: She is gradually creeping up on the competition in Hindi cinema. Having shifted headquarters to Mumbai, Samantha is now looking at some plum parts in Hindi films. She won’t play the decorative doll no matter how many zeroes are offered on the paycheque. Readying for release is Raj-DK’s Rakt Bramhand– The Bloody Kingdom on Netflix, where Samantha will prove once again after The Citadel: Honey Bunny that she is the new-age Fearless Nadia.
