‘Aarya’, ‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’, ‘Heart of Stone’: How women-led action stories dominated in 2023

Female characters who’ve pulled off mind-blowing action in recent years have unsurprisingly been compared to Gal Gadot’s turn in Wonder Woman which is on par with action-packed characters played by the likes of Jason Stathams and Dwayne Johnsons. Now, the female leads on Indian OTT are making some serious dent in the space

Aarya season 3 begins with Aarya (played by the fiery Sushmita Sen) getting shot (and presumably succumbing to it) in unexplained circumstances. The action then rewinds to four weeks earlier when a menacing-looking Aarya with bloodshot eyes and a gulaal-smeared face decided to supply afeem (opium) and distribute the drug via consignments. The first part of the third season shows Aarya locking horns with Sooraj Raizada (Indraneil Sengupta) who wants to avenge the murder of his wife Nandini Shekhawat (Charu Shankar).

A love entanglement between Aarya’s son Veer (Viren Vazirani) and Roop (Shweta Pasricha), Aarya’s consignment operator, jeopardises the delivery of a crucial opium consignment worth Rs 1,000 crore to be delivered to a Russian mob, leading to the Russian operative Anton’s death, while instantly making Aarya indebted to a rival heroin supplier, Nalini Sahiba (Ila Arun). Aarya can also be blamed for lying to her son about his beloved’s death, which distances herself from her family and her friend Maya (Maya Sarao) and Adi (Pratyaksh Panwar).

Low On Action, High On Punch

While the first part of Sushmita Sen-starrer Aarya does lack nail-biting action sequences which stood out in previous seasons, the third instalment does offer some adrenaline rush in the form of intense shootouts, a car chase and from what the preview of the second part shows, a sword fight resulting in a bloodbath. That said, Sen is as menacing as ever. She owns every frame she is in, and stands up for her children each time they need her. Most notable, in the instance when a parent wrongly accuses her young son of being a criminal, which she follows up with a death stare, scary enough to silence the mightiest of gangsters.

As a show, Aarya brought a revolution in the OTT space and for mainstream women-led narratives high on action and full of hand-to-hand combat. This is significant in a world full of Mirzapurs and Sacred Games, where male actors have taken the charge of executing most action sequences. But women-led action films aren’t a new phenomenon — from Anushka Sharma’s NH10 (2015) and Priyanka Chopra’s Mary Kom (2014) to Dangal (2016) to Alia Bhatt’s Raazi (2018) and more recently, Heart of Stone (2023) which also stars action czarina Gal Gadot, female actors have convincingly packed a punch and executed action sequences to perfection. But it’s surely a revelation to see female characters belonging to traditional Indian family constructs resorting to violent measures while keeping up with their domestic responsibilities.

Women Who Kick, Punch And Blow Things Up

The sheer number of women-led action films and OTT shows this year is a reflection of evolving audience tastes and confirms that the very idea of a female lead has been updated. Besides Aarya 3, Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo, starring Dimple Kapadia, Isha Talwar in titular roles also premiered on the same streaming platform in May. The show was Mirzapur, except everyone from the top of the drug chain to the foot soldier who kept the factory running were all women — thus casting off any aspersions one may have seeing women use guns, run gangs and play the second coming of Pablo Escobar (which, in my books, Kapadia does effortlessly — and with grace).

On to Heart of Stone which released on Netflix in August. The show didn’t receive great reviews but with Alia Bhatt, a mainstream Bollywood star sharing the space with Gadot, and in some scenes, even engaging in hand-to-hand combat is significant, especially when compared to an Anil Kapoor forgettable cameo in Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Riding Bikes To The Top of Summit

Fast forward to August when Dhak Dhak, a film based on the lives of four women who embark on a trip to the highest motorable pass in the world, while simultaneously heading off on a journey of self-discovery. Starring Ratna Pathak Shah, Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanjana Sanghi, the film goes through the beats of what it means to be a woman — the interviews of the star cast leading up to the release of the film where convey the many struggles they faced while riding bikes are a treasure trove of wisdom in itself.

The Road Ahead: Women On Top

Hollywood has had Gal Gadot play Wonder Woman, Scarlett Johanson play Black Widow and Anjelina Jolie throw some serious punches in Salt, besides already having a considerable arsenal of women-led action films or films where women engage in action scenes dating back to the ‘90s (Uma Thurman from Kill Bill anyone?. The Indian OTT space is now having a moment with women-led action films that promise to blow your socks off. Soon, Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force and Singham Again, which star Shilpa Shetty and Deepika Padukone in lead roles, will add to the list of onscreen female action stars. After all, you cannot break the glass ceiling without packing a punch, can you?