It’s naive to believe that the success of The Dirty Picture will radically enhance female clout in the Hindi film industry

Game-changer. That’s the word I’ve heard most often with reference to the Ekta Kapoor-Milan Luthria-Vidya Balan juggernaut, The Dirty Picture, which steamrolled the box office, making over Rs 52 crore in week one. Incredibly, the film opened better than hero-led projects such as Singham and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Vidya oozing sexuality 1980s-style got more first-day, first-show viewers than Hrithik Roshan’s chiselled many-pack abs. The Dirty Picture is a woman’s story. It has a superb lead actor, old-school dialogue-baazi, and, critically, no A-list male stars to prop up the narrative. Yet, it defied Bollywood naysayers and became one of the year’s biggest successes. Which has led many industry observers to ask: does the film pave the way for more women-centric stories? Is Bollywood going to create more fleshed-out female characters? Are we going to see more ‘real women’ and fewer assembly-line Barbie dolls? Click here to read more