11 Bollywood Women Directors Who Dared To Touch Upon Bold Subjects

Nandita Das who herself acted in numerous acclaimed and bold scripted movies did justice to herself as a director too. Nandita directed the film Manto, based on the controversial life of an established author and writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Saadat Hasan Manto who was an established story writer in the Bombay film industry is distressed when his family was forced to move to Pakistan post-partition of India and Pakistan. Manto was screened at prestigious film festivals including Cannes.

Director Mira Nair probably is the first woman director in India to have touched upon a sensitive subject like sex in most of her films. Though her Kamasutra: A Tale of Love was the beginning of all her hot movies but films like Children of a Desired Sex and India Cabaret too have been testaments of her earlier works.

The Indian born Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta tried a never-seen-before bold attempt on lesbianism with Fire in 1996. The film starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das in pivotal roles portrayed the sexual desires of the suppressed Indian woman who suffer in silence. The film received a lot of flak and was brought down from the theaters only to set a trend in Indian cinema for the next generation of women directors.

Director Kalpana Lajmi surely does make it to the list of Indian women directors who dealt with strong female-centric subjects. She set the tone with Ek Pal film where Shabana Azmi has an illicit affair out of her marriage to become pregnant. Her later films like Darmiyaan: In Between and Chingaari too touched upon sensitive topics of LGBT and prostitution, respectively.

Director Aruna Raje had to break up with real life husband-director Vikas Desai to make films that she believed in. Her Rihaee in 1988 portrayed the real face of rural women who are lured by other men to satisfy their sexual needs. Though the film was booed by the critics then but today it serves as an eye-opener to many moviegoers whenever it is shown on TV channels.

Aparna Sen’s Sonata can no more be treated as an experimental film which dealt with three 50-plus aged women who look back at what they missed out in life physically. Her debut film 36 Chowranghee Lane too stands testimony to one of her sensitively handled bold subjects which got her a National award for best direction in 1981.

Alankrita Shrivastava is one of Bollywood’s young female directors to join the bandwagon of bold story tellers. After assisting director Prakash Jha for a while, Alankrita made her directorial debut with Turning 30!! which sank without a trace. Her recently released film Lipstick Under My Burkha created a lot of buzz before clearing the censors. The film which tells the tale of four Indian women trapped in their own circumstances was a take on brand feminism.

Leena Yadav is a writer, editor, musician, presenter, producer, and director, all rolled in one who is known for making films with unconventional storylines. She made her Bollywood directorial debut with the Sanjay Dutt-Aishwarya Rai starrer Shabd which had an unusual storyline. Her recently released Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Surveen Chawla starrer Parched too was a bold movie with a storyline where three women break the shackles of societal norms to realize their own sexual fantasies.

Pooja Bhatt is another ‘coming of age’ woman director who dared to come up with films which were not only bold but sensuous too. The actress turned director-producer started it all with Paap where a Buddhist girl breaks the societal norms to quench her physical needs. Pooja took her direction to the next level with Jism 2 starring Sunny Leone where she uses her body to the right effect to crack down on a noted killer.

A self-acclaimed bisexual herself in real life, Shonali Bose has directed two movies namely, Amu and Margarita with a Straw, so far and both got caught with the censors. Amu had trouble in its release for having a political overtone to it while Margarita with a Straw took a while to release as it dealt with the sensitive subject of lesbianism. Both the films made the rounds of the festivals and received critical acclaim.

Writer-director Madhureeta Anand though has made a few films in an array of genres but is best known for her film Kajarya. Kajarya dealt with the pertinent topic of sex selection in India where new born girl children are killed for a male child. The film was termed as fierce and disturbing by the critics but to a large extent brought out the ugly face of Indian male dominance in our society.