It's just a faint glimmer right now, but promises to grow into an exciting trend.

For many years, male stars or 'heroes' have dominated the film industry, because their clout was needed to bring in finance for the regular commercial film, the budgets of which had been growing alarming-often in keeping with the box-office status of the star.

It was one of those vicious circle situations -- budgets were high because actors had to be paid huge sums, and actors charged small fortunes because budgets were high -- the whole complicated web of film finance would take forever to understand.

Of late audience loyalties have been shifting rapidly, and it turns out that no star can guarantee a hit. If that is the case, why sink a small fortune to sign a star, the producer started wondering?

The big budget commercial film will always be around, hanging its hopes on the magnetism of its leading man, but after the success -- relative success one might say, since the profits are also considerably less -- of films like Kya Kehna, Zubeidaa and Chandini Bar, a whole lot of people with some spare cash are funding films.

And for a film to draw attention, it needs at least a couple of known faces. It's almost impossible for a small producer to approach an Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sunny Deol or Shah Rukh Khan, since they are busy with the big films, ads and whatnot for the next few years, and seem to more interested in money than in unusual roles.

In any case, commercial films do offer the heroes better roles than they give the heroines, so the men have no reason to grumble.

However, actresses who have reached the stage where they are fed-up of playing bimbettes, or have been displaced by the anorexic young things who are needed as decorative arm candy for the 'heroes', are looking for strong female parts. And well, they are getting them on a platter now.

After marriage and motherhood, Juhi Chawla would, in the normal course, be forced to retire, or play mother and 'bhabhi' to her erstwhile romantic heroes. Now she is getting to play leading lady in a lot of offbeat, small to medium budget films that are banking on her popularity.

She is, for instance doing Nagesh Kukunoor's Three Walls, Jhankar Beats by a first-timer Sujoy Ghosh and has been approached by half a dozen filmmakers with roles that have been written for her in mind.

After Fiza and Zubeidaa, and the undeniable fact of her sister Kareena Kapoor taking over the number one position, Karisma Kapoor has a date diary open for good female oriented parts in non-commercial films. This is the time for her to do roles that challenge her capabilities as an actress.

Tabu's career as singing-dancing mannequin was almost over, when Maachis happened to her, and there was a whole world of opportunity opening out in front of her, with films being made with her in the main part and an audience (in small but significant numbers) willing to see those films.

Other actresses are following suit, by looking for the National Award kind of roles, even if it means accepting a fraction of their fees. Raveena Tandon did Shool, Daman and is now the central character in Khalid Mohamed's under-production film, among others.

Manisha Koirala, Sushmita Sen, Mahima Chaudhary, Urmila Matondkar have all got second wind because of this 'alternative' cinema suddenly making space for them.

The major actors and new actresses who have to go through the second-fiddle grind, haven't the time or inclination to spare for small films, so the great parts are being written for and grabbed by actresses hungry for challenges, and, let's face it, an extension of their careers.

While the new 'New Wave' looks like it will be dominated by female stars, strangely, women directors still have problems functioning in the mainstream.

Except for Tanuja Chandra (with the backing of mentor Mahesh Bhatt), Reema Rakeshnath (with the backing of producer husband Rikku) and Shrabani Deodhar (one commercial flop Silsila Hai Pyar Ka), no woman director has been able to get a toe in. And none of their films have succeeded.

Sai Paranjpye, Aruna Raje, Kalpana Lajmi, and new entrants Meghna Gulzar and Revathy have not been able to make audience-pleasing films. (We are talking only Hindi films, so Aparna Sen, Suhasini Mani Ratnam and Suma Josson are not included here.)

In India, because so few opportunities are available to women directors, whether they like it or not, they have fallen into the trap or making films about women, and mostly about women in victim mode, which, in these post-feminist days is boring even for women.

Which is not to say people don't want to see films about interesting women, they just don't want to see them moaning and groaning about domestic violence, rape, infertility and other 'female' problems.

Again, it's not that these subjects must be rejected (in recent times one of the most moving films about violence against women came from Rituparno Ghosh -- Dahan in Bengali) but surely Daman and Filhaal are not the kind the films that work.

On the other hand, female directors are needed to push their experiences and points of view so that certain myths and outdated notions about women's lives can be addressed/corrected. It's a razor's edge balance they have to maintain somehow, and this kind of demand is obviously not made of male directors.

It is one of those inexplicable paradoxes of showbiz that a whole lot of female-centric films are being made by men, while female directors have to eschew women's stories if they have to get noticed as filmmakers.

Anyway, if, at the end of the day, we see more of Madhuri, Manisha, Karisma, Tabu and the rest of the beautiful brigade, we are not complaining.

Also Read:
Ah, Those Women!: A Rediff Special

Earlier column
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