Here Are The Upcoming Bollywood Women Directors To Look Forward To In 2019!

Remember the 2017 Hollywood film Wonder Woman ? Yes, the Gal Gadot starrer which was amongst the highest grossing films of that year was directed by a woman director, Patty Jenkins. This clearly laid down the foundation of the foothold of women directors in the film industry, both in Bollywood and Hollywood and proved that not only they are capable of producing meaningful cinema but also deserve to win the unabashed laurels and acclaim for their contributions in the industry.

So let us scrutinize the scenario a little closer to home, in our Bollywood industry. What was a claustrophobic patriarchal industry, now in recent times has opened up to empower several women filmmakers and their presentation of women oriented subjects. Gone are the days when only female filmmakers like Deepa Mehta and Aparna Sen thrived in the industry. The new wave of empowerment, constructive feminisim or the ongoing #MeToo movement, the industry has opened up to the fresh and visionary contributions of women directors like Meghna Gulzar, Zoya Akhtar and Nandita Das. The future is female and there are enough proof to add to it.

Be it the twice National Award recipient filmmaker Aparna Sen who revolutionized the Hindi and Bengali cinema with her works like 36 Chowringhee Lane, The Japanese Wife, Mr and Mrs Iyer or the maverick Deepa Mehta who dealt with subjects like mistreatment of widows, patriarchy, homosexuality through her Elements trilogy consisting of Water, Fire and Earth which earned her an Oscar nomination and led her films to be screened at several international film festivals, time and again proving that these women directors were much ahead of their time and at par with their male counterparts. If there is Meghna Gulzar who came up with the gritty Filhaal (2002) which revolved around the concept of surrogacy which was a film quite ahead of its time for that era, there was also Zoya Akhtar who depicted the dark side of the glamour industry with Luck By Chance (2009).

Then there was the dynamic filmmaker Gauri Shinde who brought some fresh and refreshing subjects through her works like a woman recognizing her own identity with English Vinglish (2012) which had the late Sridevi in the titular role or a young woman struggling to find her mental sanity in the film Dear Zindagi (2016) starring Alia Bhatt earning her several awards like the Filmfare, Star Dust and the Zee Cine awards. Then there was Konkona Sen Sharma who after achieving an illustrious career in acting forayed into direction with the film The Death In The Gunj (2016) which led her to be the second woman to win the best director at Cannes after Russian director Yuliya Solntseva. Further women filmmakers like Alankrita Shrivastava who shattered all the inhibitions with her bold outing, Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) and Gurinder Chadha who depicted the inspirational tale of a female soccer player like Bend It Like Beckham (2002) added to the list of the flag bearers of the film industry. Here is looking at some of the women directors to look forward to in this year in Bollywood: