On Kangana Ranaut’s birthday, how Queen altered the Bollywood landscape

On Kangana Ranaut’s 32nd birthday, here’s how her calling card film, Queen, changed the Bollywood landscape.

Kangana Ranaut’s Queen is considered to be her calling card film. Not only did it cement her as one of the most interesting actor in the Hindi film industry, it inspired a streak of imitators.

Kangana Ranaut in a still from Queen.

Queen remains one of Kangana’s biggest hits, despite being made on a small budget and very little expectations. The film made over ₹100 crore at the box office - a rarity then for female-led films - against a modest budget of ₹12 crore.

Queen’s success empowered not only female actors, but also producers, who could no longer cite the lack of stars as being detrimental to their films’ chances at the box office.

On Kangana’s 32nd birthday, here’s looking at how Queen changed the landscape of Bollywood, and inspired others to attempt films like it.

Lipstick Under My Burkha

Empowerment is the central theme of Queen, and director Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha tells the story of several small town women, battling against a patriarchal society in their own unique ways. The film found a vocal and powerful supporter in producer Ekta Kapoor, who backed the film.

NH10

Actor Anushka Sharma entered into the world of film production with the tight thriller NH10, in which starred in the lead role. The film’s critical and commercial success has empowered the actor to further push the boundaries with female-driven films such as Phillauri and Pari.

Neerja

Actor Sonam Kapoor won a National Award for her performance as slain flight attendant Neerja Bhanot in director Ram Madhvani’s hijacking thriller. Sonam followed up its success with the commercially successful Veere Di Wedding and the progressive romantic drama Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga.

Piku

While Deepika Padukone might be the face of Piku, it was writer Juhi Chaturvedi who arguably most benefitted from its success. Having previously written Vicky Donor, Juhi went on to write films such as the acclaimed October, and the upcoming The Sky is Pink.

Pink

Speaking of Pink, few films in recent memory have achieved the level of pop-culture discourse as Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu-starrer Pink - a harrowing courtroom drama that couldn’t be more timely.

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