14 Bollywood Actresses Who Played City-Bred Non-Cop Daredevils

Taapsee Pannu is the latest entrant to this ever-growing list of Bollywood dare-devil actresses. Taapsee Pannu plays Shabana Khan, a RAW agent in ‘Naam Shabana’ who is on a mission to get even with India’s wrongdoers. Directed by Shivam Nair, ‘Naam Shabana’ is the prequel of Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Baby’ where she played a cameo to good effect.

 

The latest female daredevil to enter the elite club where Sonakshi will be seen bashing up a whole lot of college ruffians and policemen who frame her into charges. Directed by A.R. Murugadoss, 'Akira' is a remake of the 2011 Tamil film ‘Mouna Guru’. The film also features Konkona Sen Sharma and Anurag Kashyap.

'NH10' was an heroine-centric role which was also produced by Anushka where she single-handedly fights a bunch of goons who eliminate her husband (Neil Bhoopalam). Though she is on the run saving herself from the ruffians in order to get help from the police, she loses her husband and decides to fight back. The way she eliminates each one of them is worth a watch.

A political drama where Kangana plays a politician who falls in love with a rising Bollywood star (Vir Das) whom she vows to protect from others. The flick has her playing a daredevil action queen with a loaded gun who is called 'Revolver Rani'. Her outfits and dialogues were over the top which led to the film being loud and lewd.

Based on a true story where Madhuri Dixit heads a gang of females dressed in pink who are victims of oppression and societal atrocities. She takes up the responsibility to train these ladies in martial arts to enable them to get even with their opponents. Though the action flick was women-centric, it was Juhi Chawla’s ruthless politician act that stole the show.

Deepika did a ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ in this spooky flick where she played twin sisters - Sakhi (Ms.TSM) and Suzy (Meow Meow), respectively. Suzy was the action queen who was trained in martial arts who also played the moll to the villain. Her chinky look and action sequences were better executed than that of Akshay Kumar.

Priyanka has played an action queen in uniform but as a non-cop daredevil she has appeared in ‘Don’, ‘Drona’ and ‘Mary Kom’. In the first installment of ‘Don’ she was trained in martial arts before joining Shah Rukh’s gang to avenge her brother’s death. In ‘Drona’ she teams up with Abhishek to get even with KK Menon and in ‘Mary Kom’ she portrayed the role of the Indian Champion boxer by the same name.

Loosely based on the Hollywood flick ‘An Eye For An Eye’ where Kajol played twin sisters of which one is raped and murdered by Ashutosh Rana but goes scot-free by the court. The other Kajol gets trained by Sanjay Dutt in martial arts as she smartly eliminates Ashutosh Rana in the climax.

Sridevi played the role of twin sisters in this remake of ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ which was directed by Punkaj Parashar. Though Sridevi had Sunny Deol and Rajinikanth playing the romantic leads opposite to her but it was her film all the way. The elder sister’s role that she played was the reserved and frightened kind whereas the younger one was a daredevil who bashes up a whole lot of goons at will.

One of Rekha’s most memorable performances to date in actor-director Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Khoon Bhari Maang’ which was a remake of the Hollywood flick ‘Return To Eden’. The role suited her to a ‘T’ as her portrayal of a soft mother turned wounded tigress was something which can be counted as one of the best performances of an Indian actress on screen. Her performance helped her bag that year’s ‘Best Actress’ Filmfare trophy in 1988.

Dimple Kapadia who had just delivered the controversial hit ‘Zakhmi Aurat’ in 1987 followed it up by this action flick which had Kabir Bedi and Danny for support. Dimple played a normal woman till she is betrayed by Danny and in return takes up arms and gets training in martial arts to settle scores.

Who can forget Roma in ‘Don’ played by the then reigning Queen Zeenat Aman? Roma played a dare devil tomboy in this action thriller who is out to avenge her slain brothers death who is killed by Don, played by Amitabh Bachchan. Roma’s dare devil act served as a trend setter for other actresses to come.

Hema Malini who ruled the 70’s and 80’s was at her peak doing all kinds of roles. Though she has played the dacoit and cop role many times but her act as a no non-sense ‘bahu’ in ‘Jyoti’ and street smart Geeta in ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ stand out. In both the flicks, she is a part of the action beating up the baddies. ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ helped her fetch her first Filmfare award trophy for best female actress in 1972.

India’s first stuntwoman dare devil, Mary Ann Evans a.k.a. Mary Evans Wadia who came to be known as Fearless Nadia, acted in a whole lot of action flicks in the early 30’s and 40’s. Her most famous act as a dare devil was the masked, cloaked adventurer in ‘Hunterwali’ where she plays a princess out to get justice fighting the baddies in the film single-handedly.