The best Bollywood movies on women empowerment : Kahaani

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

The best Bollywood movies on women empowerment

Lajja

Directed by
Rajkumar Santoshi

Produced by
Rajkumar Santoshi

Story by
Rajkumar Santoshi

Star Cast
Manisha Koirala
Madhuri Dixit
Mahima Chaudhary
Rekha
Jackie Shroff
Anil Kapoor
Ajay Devgan
Samir Soni

Year
2001

Story was about woman empowerment from different point of views. It speaks volumes about the plight of women in our country and each character signifies an important role in the movie.

Dor

Directed by
Nagesh Kukunoor

Produced by
Elahe Hiptoola

Star Cast
Ayesha Takia
Gul Panag
Shreyas Talpade

Year
2006

Story is based on a conservative section of India where widowed women have been treated badly.
It`s a story of Meera who have faced the humiliation and torture by her family because of being widow.

Astitva

Directed by
Mahesh Manjrekar

Produced by
Rahul Sughand

Story by
Mahesh Manjrekar

Star Cast
Tabu
Sachin Khedekar
Mohnish Bahl
Ravindra Mankani
Sumita Jaykar

Year
2000

The plot of the film deals with the issues like male chauvinism, extramarital affairs, and spousal abuse. It is about a woman trying to find a separate identity outside her marriage.

Chak De

Directed by
Shimit Amin

Produced by
Aditya Chopra

Star Cast
Shahrukh Khan

Year
2007

The film is based on Indian women`s hockey team which had been discouraged and ignored by everyone. Team`s coach Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) finds himself in charge of a group of 16 young women from various sections of India, who are divided by their own competitive natures and individual prejudices. While working to overcome their differences, the girls eventually learn to act as a single unit, leading them to win the Championship.

Mother India

Directed by
Mehboob Khan

Produced by
Mehboob Khan

Star Cast
Nargis
Sunil Dutt
Rajendra Kumar
Raaj Kumar

Year
1957

Story reveals a poverty stricken village, where a women named Radha (Nargis) who belongs to a poor farmer family and gets widow has to suffer a lot. The movie was the first Bollywood movie to be nominated at the Oscars in the Foreign Film category.

Damini

Directed by
Rajkumar Santoshi

Produced by
Aly Morani
Karim Morani
Bunty Soorma

Star Cast
Meenakshi Sheshadri
Rishi Kapoor
Sunny Deol
Amrish Puri
Vijayendra Ghatge
Tinu Anand
Paresh Rawal

Year
1993

The tale of the plight of Damini who maintained her stand with a maid who is sexually harassed by her owner and that owner was Damini`s brother in-law . She sufferred humiliation by her family because of the same reason. Character of Damini is played by Meenakshi Sheshadri.

Mirch Masala

Directed by
Ketan Mehta

Produced by
National Film Development Corporation

Star Cast
Smita Patil
Naseerudin Shah
Om Puri
Paresh Rawal
Suresh Oberoi

Year
1987

A powerful story on the fight against oppression

Bandit Queen

Directed by
Shekhar Kapur

Produced by
Bobby Bedi

Star Cast
Seema Biswas

Year
1994

The film is based upon the life of Phoolan Devi and her jouney.

Matrubhoomi

Directed by
Manish Jha

Produced by
Patrick Sobelman, Punkej
Kharbanda
Star Cast
Tulip Joshi
Sudhir Pandey
Sushant Singh
Aditya Srivastava

Year
2003

No One Killed Jessica

Directed by
Raj Kumar Gupta

Produced by
Ronnie Screwvala

Star Cast
Rani Mukherji
Vidya Balan

Year
2011

The story is based on the well known Jessica Lal case. Rani Mukherjee as a reporter did really well. Vidya Balan was portrayed as a sister of Jessica who was killed by a politician`s son in a crowd of more than 100 people and still no witness was in support of Jessica. Story is about a struggle of a sister asking for justice .

English Vinglish

Directed by
Gauri Shinde

Produced by
Sunil Lulla
R. Balki
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
R.K Damani

Story by
Gauri Shinde

Star Cast
Sridevi
Mehdi Nebbou
Priya Anand
Adil Hussain

Year
2012

Kahaani

Directed by
Sujoy Ghosh

Produced by
Sujoy Ghosh
Kushal Kantilal Gada

Story by
Advaita Kala
Sujoy Ghosh

Star Cast
Vidya Balan
Parambrata Chatterjee
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Indraneil Sengupta
Saswata Chatterjee

Year
2012

Vidya Balan performed exceedingly well in this suspense thriller. It`s the story of revenge of a woman`s husband`s death in a terrorist activity.

Compiled by:Manashi Sinha