The Year End Issue News

Many lead roles in Hindi cinema went to women this year. As it ends, we look at the Indian film heroine since the 1970s

K. Balachander's heroines, and others from films in the 1970s and 1980s, played complex roles and scandalized the Tamil society of that time

She blazed through the 1970s as the hip, Westernized, oomph girl on screen

Our leading ladies are, at long last, redefining the very idea of what a woman can and cannot do

Smita Patil was a one-woman antidote to the simpering, witless and doll-like women who paraded across screen

A bridge between the New Wave and the formulaic, Shabana Azmi's acting oeuvre is full of risks, contradictions, variety and excellence

Detective, boxer, politicianwomen played a variety of lead roles in 2014. How did that reflect at the box office or alter producers' mindsets?

Deepika Padukone's journey from star to star actor, how she retained the top spot this year, and another big year ahead

She acted and spoke her heart out this year. By pitching herself as the 'Bollywood outsider', Kangana Ranaut also proved she is smart

Rituparno Ghosh pushed the envelope in many directions, and his best women-centric films forge a continuity with an existing tradition of women characters in Bengali cinema