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Bollywood's 3 Heroine Stories

August 30, 2021 09:35 IST

Photograph: Kind courtesy Priyanka Chopra/Instagram

There's no dearth of three hero movies in Bollywood where the role of the leading woman is limited to a love interest.

Finally though, there's increasing focus on female friendships and bonding.

In Jee Le Zaraa, Zoya Akhtar's swanky new road trip to self-discovery, our favourite gal pals Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt are set to take off on a whirlwind adventure.

Sukanya Verma lists other notable instances of our three-heroine tales.

 

Fashion

Madhur Bhandarkar takes a hard look into the world of style and glamour through the rise, fall and compromise of three ramp models -- Priyanka Chopra's small town girl nursing starry eyed dreams, Mugdha Godse's independent, practical types and Kangana Ranaut's supermodel bogged down by drug addiction.

 

Tribhanga: Tedhi Medhi Crazy

Three generations of mothers and daughters, their strained ties and striking individuality leads to much high drama between Tanvi Azmi, Kajol and Mithila Palkar under Renuka Shahane's direction.

 

Aisha

In this stylish adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, poor little rich girl Sonam Kapoor's love for playing cupid along with sassy best friend Ira Dubey finds a mesmeriSed guinea pig in the artless Amrita Puri.

 

P.I.N.K.

Three friends -- Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang -- sharing a cosy Delhi neighbourhood flat find themselves in the eye of storm after an episode of sexual assault implicates them for a crime instead of granting them justice.

 

Bachna Ae Haseeno

Originally planned as a four-heroine story, the growing length forced Director Siddharth Anand to keep it down to three.

While Ranbir Kapoor proves his prowess as a flirt on an atonement spree, it's the character and romance provided by Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Minissha Lamba that lends it wholesome charm.

 

Parched

Leena Yadav chronicles the suffering, spirit and sexuality of a troika of rural Rajasthani women, portrayed by Radhika Apte, Tannishhta Chatterjee and Surween Chawla against the background of rampant patriarchy and misogyny in the exquisitely shot Parched.

 

Boom

Best remembered for all the wrong reasons, Boom's hyper trippy, muddled and excessively indulgent crime drama about three models -- Madhu Sapre, Padma Lakshmi, Katrina Kaif -- caught in a shady web of gangsters and smugglers, also marks Kat's forgettable introduction in Bollywood.

 

Dil Maange More

Shahid Kapoor's roving eye struggles to make up its mind between the childhood sweetheart (Soha Ali Khan), the girl next door (Ayesha Takia) and the colleague (Tulip Joshi) in Dil Maange More's standard confection.

 

Dil Aashna Hai

Inspired by Shirley Conran's Lace, the Hema Malini directed melodrama stars Dimple Kapadia, Amrita Singh and Sonu Walia as lifelong friends, of which one is suspected to be Divya Bharti's biological mom. A good deal of the story is the latter's search for the same.

 

Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda

In Shyam Benegal's adaptation of Dr Dharamvir Bharti's acclaimed novel, a raconteur's experiences around three different women at three different junctures of life, essayed by Rajeshwari Sachdev, Pallavi Joshi and Neena Gupta, forms the crux of his zigzag narration and regrets.

 

Ashanti

Bollywood's answer to Charlie's Angels packs its hottest and coolest in the face of Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi and Shabana Azmi doling out everything from action to item songs in this revenge fuelled masala offering.

 

Teen Bahuraniyan

A remake of the 1967 Tamil comedy Bama Vijayam, S Janaki, Kanchana and Jayanthi play Prithviraj Kapoor's excited bahus leaving no stone unturned in upgrading their lives and lifestyle following the arrival of a glamorous movie star next door.

 

Teen Devian

Dev Anand's inability to say no lands him in a great deal of romantic entanglement and confusion as he finds himself up, close and personal with the doe-eyed fellow tenant (Nanda), a free-spirited actress (Kalpana) and the charming socialite (Simi Garewal).

SUKANYA VERMA