Ekta Kapoor is a successful entrepreneur and is a trendsetter in television industry. She is the daughter of actor Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor. Her younger brother Tusshar Kapoor is also a Bollywood actor.
Ekta started her career at an early age and turned out to be one of the biggest producers in television industry. Celebrating womanhood, Ekta was one of the first show makers to cast women in strong roles. It did come as a surprise to see females playing the lead, but the audience accepted it wholeheartedly. Be it domestic violence, premarital sex, polygamy or infidelity, social issues played important roles in Ekta’s shows, and she handled it all with care. After the family dramas and romance saga, the producer recently introduced the supernatural trend, which managed to shake the world of soaps.
Ekta stepped into films early in her career. While some of them did well at the box office, others definitely made a mark in the audiences’ mind. Just like her serials, her movies are also women-oriented and have helped change the audience’s perspective regarding women in the industry.
These Ekta Kapoor’s films have represented women ‘differently’.
The Dirty Picture:
The story of a country girl breaking the chains that bind her to her rural upbringing and looking for success on the big screen is not a new one. This story played out for real in the south Indian film industries in the 1980s with the real-life Silk Smitha. Silk’s tragic tale is illustrated capably by director Milan Luthria. The rise of this big screen siren is nearly as meteoric as her sudden fall from grace.
Ragini MMS:
The film is inspired by Paranormal Activity, the cult horror film that created waves with its grainy hand-held video footage. Ragini and Uday make an interesting couple. She’s the fragile uptown girl, unabashed about expressing her sexual demands. He’s the desi boy who sprinkles his conversation with cuss words, he has no qualms about exploiting the pretty young thing who trusts him completely. The chills factory gets in overdrive when the ghost decides to make her presence felt and begins to yank hair, fling bodies, and wound flesh in the middle of the foreplay. Ragini MMS makes a heady cocktail of sex and horror that’s so very different from run-of-the-mill Bollywood.
Ek Thi Dayan:
Ek Thi Daayan, a supernatural musical entertaining romantic thriller with an electrifying jolt at the end revolves around the character Bobo (Emraan Hashmi), India’s leading magician. But, unknown to his girlfriend Tamara, Bobo’s life is falling apart. His constant hallucinations leave him with no option but to seek psychiatric help. The female characters in the film get plenty of scope to perform despite Emraan’s presence.
Lipstick Under My Burkha:
Lipstick Under My Burkha chronicles the secret lives of four women in search of a little freedom. Set in the crowded lanes of small town India, a burkha-clad college girl struggles with issues of cultural identity and her aspirations to be a pop singer. A young two-timing beautician, seeks to escape the claustrophobia of her small town. An oppressed housewife and mother of three, lives the alternate life of an enterprising saleswoman. And a 55-year-old widow rediscovers her sexuality through a phone romance. Though stifled and trapped in their worlds, these four women claim their desires through small acts of courage and stealthy rebellion.
Veere Di Wedding:
Veere Di Wedding is a movie in which womanhood is not all about being virtuous. What makes ‘Veere Di Wedding’ a unique prospect is that here the pack of performers, is led by four ladies who make their choices, stand by them and have the guts to live their life the they want. They speak their mind with fearless abandon, while they’re talking about sex before marriage, the lack of it post marriage, about orgasms and sex toys. It’s refreshing to see a film present its women characters, in not just a progressive light, but also with umpteen flaws and cracks. It gives them the freedom to make mistakes and move on and that’s the beauty of it. They don’t feel compelled to explain themselves or justify their actions, and that is one of the highlights of the film.
