For decades, we have seen Bollywood actors rely heavily on characters like a cop, a spy or an army officer to resurrect a dying career, and when thrilling and gravity-defying action sequences are added to this mix, it becomes a pot of pot. One of the earliest and most iconic examples of this is Amitabh Bachchan, whose career was revived with Zanjeer in 1975. The film transformed Big B’s career from that of a “failed newcomer” to the “angry young man” phenomenon.
Even the superstars who came after him, including Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, followed the same formula. When Salman faced a series of commercial failures between 2006 and 2008, he decided to return to the screen as the morally ambiguous cop Chulbul Pandey. He was not virtuous like Big B’s Vijay Khanna, but he had his own ways of enforcing the law. Similarly, when Shah Rukh Khan saw back-to-back flops with Jab Harry Met Sejal and Zero, he took a five-year hiatus, only to return as a spy in Pathaan. In the same vein, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn also found ways to stay relevant through their spy and cop franchises like War and Singham, respectively.
‘Why do only men play giant police officers in mainstream cinema?’
Little by little, this pattern has been catching up with Bollywood’s leading ladies, particularly relatively veteran actresses who are looking for a sure way to make a strong impact on the screen instead of being reduced to supporting characters in films led by the current generation of actors. For them, putting on the police uniform becomes a way to regain control.
The latest example of this shift is Rani Mukerji, whose third installment of her hit franchise Mardaani, in which she reprises her role as senior inspector Shivani Shivaji Roy, recently hit the theatres.
The first film in the franchise, Mardaani, was released in 2014, the same year Rani married Aditya Chopra, who also financed the films under Yash Raj Films. After marriage, Rani has been selective with her projects. During this period, he appeared in only a handful of films (Hichki, Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway), but none of them turned out to be big hits at the box office. Since 2014, however, it is the Mardaani franchise that has seen consistent commercial results, cementing its cop avatar and keeping it relevant.
In an old PTI interview, Rani Mukerji explained how Mardaani was designed to break the mold of conventional narratives. “Why are we never told how brave female cops are? Why is it always about men? That’s because in mainstream cinema we’ve always seen these larger-than-life cops. So I think somewhere, at least, that mold is being broken,” she said.
Rani Mukerji in a still from Mardaani.
I always wanted to be a police officer: Raveena
Rani Mukerji’s contemporary Raveena Tandon has remained active in films and starred in multiple projects in recent years, but it was her forceful performance in her OTT debut, the Netflix crime thriller Aranyak, that really stood out and received a lot of praise from audiences and critics alike. In the show, she plays the role of an honest police officer who struggles to balance her personal and professional life. The series was among Netflix’s most-watched titles after the pandemic and emerged as a huge hit.
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In an old interaction with Filmfare, Raveena admitted that it was his strong writing and bold character that made her sign Aranyak. “The character I play is strong, fierce and talented. And this has always been my secret desire… if you read my interviews, even from the ’90s, I always wanted to be a police officer,” he said.
Raveena Tandon in a still from Aranyak.
Delhi crime changed everything for me: Shefali Shah
Actor Shefali Shah, who played Akshay Kumar’s mother in 2005’s Waqt despite being three years his junior, has often spoken about how she didn’t get her due in the film industry. Despite being a part of iconic projects like Monsoon Wedding, Rangeela, Satya and Gandhi: My Father, he struggled for years to establish himself as a leading force. That changed when the Emmy Award-winning web series Delhi Crime came her way, in which she played DCP Vartika Chaturvedi. The role even earned Shah an International Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress and has since been renewed for three seasons.
Shefali told SCREEN: “Delhi Crime changed everything for me. It changed the way people looked at me and the way they valued me. With Delhi Crime, they (the filmmakers) realized that they could put a whole show or film on my shoulders or that I could be the parallel lead. It really changed things.”
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Shefali Shah in a still from Delhi Crime.
Hello Asli Singham main hoon: Kajol
Kajol joined the ranks of Rani Mukerji and Raveena Tandon when she played a cop for the first time in Do Patti. The actress has appeared in several projects over the last few years (Tribhanga, Salaam Venky, Maa and Sarzameen), but it was her role as a star cop in Kriti Sanon’s Do Patti that really stood out. Talking about the experience, Kajol admitted that she loved playing a cop on screen. “When you wear a uniform on screen, there’s a certain stature and cadence to your posture, even when you know you’re an actor giving it a try and the uniform isn’t really yours. I loved playing a cop and I’d love to play him again,” he said.
Kajol in a still from Do Patti.
When asked who the real Singham was between her and husband Ajay Devgn, she quipped, “Maine pehle bhi kahaan hai aur har stage pe kahaan hai ki asli Singham main hoon (I have said this before, I am the real Singham).”
It’s good to play a powerful woman who can make the decisions: taboo
Tabu played the role of a cold-blooded cop in Drishyam. Known for making each character her own, Tabu played a ruthless officer and a desperate mother with equal conviction in the film. In an old interview, Tabu admitted that she is mostly averse to violence, but accepted it in the film. However, what she really enjoyed was playing a strong policewoman.
Taboo on a still image from Drishyam.
“Playing a police officer is always exciting for any actor, because there’s something about that uniform. It’s always nice to play powerful people who can make the decisions. Being a woman, you can make the decisions, have people picked up and beaten and get the truth out of them, test them, put them behind bars,” she said, while praising the ‘bravery’ of female police officers.