Bollywood films mirror the life of women in India to a larger extent. After some magnificent movies in 2016 such as Pink, Sarabjit and Neerja featured women in powerful roles, 2017 also saw a series of films with powerful lead female protagonists, and we breathed a sigh of relief. We saw modern women playing a variety of characters, with shades of grey, that were genuine and engaging.

Let’s take a look at all the female-driven movies that came out in 2017 that may or may not have been a box-office hit.

Vidya Balan as Sulochana (Tumhari Sulu): Vidya as an actress never fails to win applause from her fans for playing challenging roles in the movies. This time too, she played Sulu, a homemaker with aspirations and dreams and trust in achieving them. The portrays her transition from a housewife to a late night RJ and beautifully hit upon the traditional gender stereotypes and roles.

Konkana Sen Sharma as Shireen Aslam (Lipstick Under Burkha): After playing bold and courageous roles in movies like Life in a Metro and Page 3, the actress once again proved her skills by playing the role of Aslam. The character in the film is married to an orthodox and dominating spouse who doesn’t allow her freedom of any kind. Furthermore, she is prohibited from having protected sex. Between all this, she secretly works as a saleswoman and proves her independent identity.

Bhumi Pednekar as Jaya (Toilet Ek Prem Katha): After her debut film which spoke about body shaming, Bhumi has touched the most hypersensitive issue disturbing the women of our nation – open defecation. Jaya, an educated woman, doesn’t hesitate to even file a divorce petition on the pretext of a lack of toilet in her spouse’s house.

Sridevi as Devki Sabharwal (Mom): This movie revolves around the relationship between a teenage daughter and mother. Mom marked the comeback of Sridevi after English Vinglish. While the content was similar to many things we have seen in the past, that of a vindicate mother, the film was still satisfying on many levels.

These and many more such movies celebrated woman power in its real essence. They made aware the Indian society that women deserve their share of respect, attention and self-respect.