Vidya Balan as Begum Jaan, Deepika Padukone as Sapna Didi and Shraddha Kapoor as Haseena Parkar– meet the mafia queens before Alia Bhatt’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’

Alia Bhatt’s first look in ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ was revealed today and the actress looked impressive in the poster as she plays a mafia queen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directorial. However this is not the first time that a Bollywood actress is playing a tough female character on the silver screen. While Vidya Balan has essayed a brothel madam in ‘Begum Jaan’, Seema Biswas delivered the memorable ‘Bandit Queen’ back in 1994 and Deepika Padukone was set to play a mafia queen in Vishal Bharadwaj’s next directorial.

Vidya Balan played the lead role of a brothel madam in ‘Begum Jaan’. The 2017 release was set in the partition era and saw Vidya essay a fierce brothel madam who knows well how to protect her boundaries. Her brothel stood in the middle of a line drawn to divide India and Pakistan and after putting up a brave front, she enters her burning brothel and accepts her death.

Filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj was keen to make a film on mafia queen Rahima Khan, popularly known as Sapna Didi. The film was to be based on a chapter from the book Mafia Queens of Mumbai by Hussain S Zaidi. The filmmaker was reportedly planning to rope in Irrfan Khan to play a local gangster who falls in love with Deepika and helps her in the mission to eliminate Dawood Ibrahim. However, the film did not go on floors.

Shraddha Kapoor underwent a massive transformation to portray the role of Haseena Parkar, a biopic based on based the life of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister. The actress played a strong role referred to as Aapa and her onscreen character emerged fiercely in a male-dominated society. The film featured Shraddra’s journey from a 17-year-old teenager to a 43-year-old. From weight gain to prosthetics and heavy make-up, the actress put in a lot of hardwork for her onscreen avatar.

Seema Biswas played one of the earliest characters of a woman taking on a life of crime on the silver screen. Her portrayal of Phoolan Devi in 1994 release ‘Bandit Queen’ earned her a National Award. The film traced Phoolan Devi’s journey from her marriage to the atrocities she faced, eventually her inclusion in a gang and surrender to the police.