Can Indian cinema accept heroines playing villains in the movie? Not the kind of seducing or tricking with their glamour, but a proper baddie?
Maami’s phuphis and of course mother-in-laws are the ones playing baddies in every other film. Even heroes including Shah Rukh, Akshay Kumar, Suriya, Vikram and others playing the main villains, then why heroines are shying away from playing the negative role?
Indian films, at least most of the mainstream movies show heroines as just an inspiration to the heroes and the reason for them to get glorified. Forget as a strong opponent, only a handful films have women in the equal footing with heroes.
However, it looks like the South film industry, especially Kollywood is opening up for such experiments where women are playing the villains in the movie.
The trend has been made popular with Trisha’s role in the recently released film Kodi. Even though Dhanush plays two characters in the movie, it is Trisha who wins the heart as a merciless villain.
Trisha plays an aspiring politician in Kodi who doesn’t want to leave out any chance to be on the top position in her party. Not loud as the usual villains, Trisha wins heart by her subtle but convincing acting.
According to latest reports the favourite mother of Tamil cinemas, Saranya Ponnavan will be playing the baddie in the upcoming movie Achamindri against Samuthirakani.
Whereas Tollywood and Sandalwood still have the heroines as an additional responsibility to the heroes.
In a way, Malayalam movie industry has strong characters scripted for women. Still, it is yet to catch up with the idea of heroines playing the villains.