Playing by the Roles

Two rising stars. Different backgrounds. Different career paths. The contest for the new leading lady of Bollywood has never been more interesting

- PUJA TALWAR

Bollywood has come a long way, and its leading lady, even further. The term heroine or actress no longer evokes the image of a chiffon-clad ethereal beauty swaying her sari in sub-zero temperatures, which was memorialised by director Yash Chopra in his 1989 Sridevi-starrer Chandni. As it should be, the Hindi cinema heroine has evolved with the times. Irrespective of her beginnings a rich brat (Shanaya in Student of the Year) or a small-town girl (Sweety in Bareilly ki Barfi) she is ambitious; at par, if not better, than the hero; and is human enough to need a pheran while dancing amid snow-clad mountains (Rani in Rocky Rani ki Prem Kahaani).

Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt can, in some ways, be credited for having redefined and, to a certain extent, cement this new image of the leading lady, who is as much of a crowd-puller as her male counterpart. As they inch closer to becoming seasoned professionals, the baton has been passed on to the rising stars, two of them in particular: Ananya Panday and Triptii Dimri. Both have dominated our screens big and small over the last one year with projects such as Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, Animal, Call Me Bae and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, establishing themselves as Bollywood's new 'it' girls, but their career trajectories-be it their backgrounds or their choice of directors and films-have been diametrically opposite. Yet, the audiences and the box office like them both, leading one to wonder what Bollywood's leading lady really looks like, and if there is a success formula to land the coveted title.

Same Same, but Different

Both Triptii and Ananya debuted a year apart, but with different outcomes. While Ananya delivered a box-office superhit in Student of the Year 2 (2019), Triptii's Laila Majnu (2018) was a colossal flop. More than half-a-decade later, both seem to have found common ground: that of being Bollywood's most sought-after actors.