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Sister Midnight, Santosh and All We Imagine as Light are part of a new wave of female-centered Indian films challenging the roles of traditional Bollywood heroines.
They're unpredictable, sometimes humorous, sometimes sexually adventurous, and they're all leading characters, rather than orbiting a man. The heroines of films including Sister Midnight, Santosh, Girls Will Be Girls, All We Imagine as Light and Shadowbox are giving international audiences a chance to see female characters from India who differ from most traditional Bollywood heroines. But do Indian audiences want to watch them – or will they even be able to?
A feral bride in an arranged marriage that neither she nor the groom particularly want, Uma is the protagonist of Karan Kandhari's spiky comedy Sister Midnight, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Bafta. Well-known Bollywood actress Radhika Apte, who plays her, is shown struggling with household chores. "Men are dim," her neighbour tells her. "They'll eat anything. Just add chilli and salt." Uma informs her awkward groom, who has gone on a week-long drinking binge, that he "stinks" and tells her employers sarcastically when they offer her a cleaning job that she's "a domestic goddess".
Told through offbeat dialogue, physical comedy and a punkish soundtrack that includes Iggy Pop, Sister Midnight presents a heroine unlike anything else filmed in India, according to Apte. "I'd never read anything like it before and I couldn't put it down," she tells the BBC. "I was completely taken by Uma, she was this crazy creature, and I didn't know why I resonated with her, but I just did. It was going to be a very thin line playing her between it being really cool and it going wrong. And that excited and challenged me. I also like how unapologetic Uma is and the more she accepts herself, the freer and stronger she becomes."
'People are hungry for something different': The 'anti-Bollywood' films fighting sexist stereotypes
Sister Midnight, Santosh and All We Imagine as Light are part of a new wave of female-centered Indian films challenging the roles of traditional Bollywood heroines.
They're unpredictable, sometimes humorous, sometimes sexually adventurous, and they're all leading characters, rather than orbiting a man. The heroines of films including Sister Midnight, Santosh, Girls Will Be Girls, All We Imagine as Light and Shadowbox are giving international audiences a chance to see female characters from India who differ from most traditional Bollywood heroines. But do Indian audiences want to watch them – or will they even be able to?
A feral bride in an arranged marriage that neither she nor the groom particularly want, Uma is the protagonist of Karan Kandhari's spiky comedy Sister Midnight, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Bafta. Well-known Bollywood actress Radhika Apte, who plays her, is shown struggling with household chores. "Men are dim," her neighbour tells her. "They'll eat anything. Just add chilli and salt." Uma informs her awkward groom, who has gone on a week-long drinking binge, that he "stinks" and tells her employers sarcastically when they offer her a cleaning job that she's "a domestic goddess".
Told through offbeat dialogue, physical comedy and a punkish soundtrack that includes Iggy Pop, Sister Midnight presents a heroine unlike anything else filmed in India, according to Apte. "I'd never read anything like it before and I couldn't put it down," she tells the BBC. "I was completely taken by Uma, she was this crazy creature, and I didn't know why I resonated with her, but I just did. It was going to be a very thin line playing her between it being really cool and it going wrong. And that excited and challenged me. I also like how unapologetic Uma is and the more she accepts herself, the freer and stronger she becomes."
