Bollywood Actresses Over The Years

Author: Kevin Fernandez

Despite the male dominated film industry, actresses found a space of their own in the industry with their fine talent. Beginning from Zubeida , the lead actress in Alam Ara (1931) - the first movie to be released with a sound track - many versatile actresses have given life to many characters and have made those roles evergreen. Nargis, Madhubala, Nutan, Waheeda Rehman, Meena Kumari and Mala Sinha could boast of the huge number of followers they made when they started acting in the Hindi film industry.
It was their success in the industry that inspired a lot of actresses foray into movies. Each decade in Bollywood saw charming beauties like Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Helen and Mumtaz showcasing their acting skill. With intense and breathtaking performances, Jaya Bhaduri, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Deepti Naval rewrote the definition of acting and were more popular than actors. Their ability gave them the opportunity to act in the lead roles of movies. Other talented actresses like Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman were confident enough to portray sensuous characters, which broke the traditions of society. Hindi film industry started seeing actresses as an integral part of movies and storylines were incomplete without them.