From Aishwarya to Hema: Here's a list of Bollywood's women warriors before 'Mastani' Deepika

With the release of the first  look of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani, apart from Ranveer Singh’s Maratha warrior look, we also got a glimpse of Deepika Padukone as the warrior queen Mastani. Sporting what looks slightly like a helmet, and aiming at arrow, Deepika looks every bit a warrior. Meanwhile, there’s a huge buzz around this year’s biggest epic saga film Baahubali. The pictures of the male leads are splashed all over the posters of the film. There’s great interest in Prabhas and Rana, every detail of their work out sessions and diet have been probed by the media. [caption id=“attachment_2343766” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Aishwarya Rai in Jodha Akbar and Deepika Padukone in Bajirao Mastani.[/caption] But there is close to negligible information about the women in Baahubali. All we’ve heard is that Tamannah Bhatia plays Prabhas’ love interest, but very few know about Sivagami, the queen of the royal family of Maheshmathi, and a mother figure to Prabhas and Rana. If you haven’t seen the film yet, watch out for her character, it’s pretty badass. So Bajirao Mastani sent us digging for instances of women playing warriors and suchlike in Hindi costume dramas. Sivagami (played by Telegu actress Ramya Krishnan) - Baahubali  (2015)

In the first few scenes of the film, Sivagami – who raises Baahubali (Prabhas) and Ballala Deva (Rana) together as children – kills all the courtiers who oppose her. It’s a pretty intensely violent scene, where you get a glimpse of the Queen’s sheer power. After all, she raised two of the most brute contenders to be the King. SS Rajamouli himself admitted in this DNA report that, “Never before have I dealt with a character so intense and an actor so capable.” Jodhaa Bai (played by Aishwarya Rai) - Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

In Ashutosh Gowarikar’s film, Emperor Akbar’s wife Jodhaa, is shown to be a skilled warrior. After all, who can forget the sword-fighting scene between Hrithik Roshan playing Akbar and Aishwarya Rai playing the feisty Rajput princess Jodhaa? Rani Lakshmibai (played by late actress Mehtab) - Jhansi ki Rani (1953) Not many from from our generation knows of this 1953 film. Set in the 19th century against the backdrop of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the film revolves aroud Rani Lakshmibai, known as the first Indian woman to lead an army against the British. The film was directed by Sohrab Modi and starred Mehtab as the Lakshmibai. According to reports, the film didn’t do well at all at the box office.  However, Mehtab is seen in the film playing a warrior with great finesse. In this one scene, she is seen engaging in a sword fight with her opponents , while she rides a horse. Also, Rani Lakshmibai is set to get another shot at the Bollywood box office.  According to this HT report, Ketan Mehta’s next will star Kangana Ranaut at the fiesty queen, and Hugh Grant could also be starring opposite her. Razia Sultan (played by Hema Malini) - Razia Sultan (1983) Who wouldn’t love to see Hema Malini play the fierce female Sultan of Delhi? However in this Kamal Amrohi film, the main theme is the Razia’s alleged love affair with Yakut Jamaluddin (played by Dharmendra). Now, we know Hema Malini and Dharmendra were the talk of the town back then, but it wouldn’t have hurt to explore Razia Sultan, the fighter in more detail, right? But the film doesn’t disappoint completely. In the last few scenes, Hema Malini as Razia Sultan fights is seen in warrior mode. But we would have definitely loved to see more Sonia the bodyguard (played by Priyanka Chopra) - Drona (2008)

Drona was all about Abhishek Bachchan and it was a pretty bad film. Bachchan, as Drona was a disaster. However, Priyanka Chopra, who played Drona’s bodyguard Sonia, stood out in some frames. Though her character was as badly written as the rest of the film, it was treat to watch Chopra get out of the typical Bollywood heroine mode and play a character with more sass.