5 Fierce Female Entrepreneurs: Bollywood Edition

Looking for a dose of inspiration, along with some Bollywood fun? Then look no further than this list of some of my favorite movies featuring women entrepreneurs!

Dil Dhadakne Do

The movie is a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional business family who learn to come together and support each other. Ayesha Mehra (Priyanka Chopra) is the self-driven daughter who sets up her own successful travel portal. Ayesha achieves her success despite her unsupportive and controlling husband. Spoiler alert – she ultimately leaves him and finds happiness with those who appreciate her as she is.

In one scene, Ayesha’s husband gloats that he “allows” her to work, but is quickly cut down to size.

“Until my dad’s generation, no woman had ever worked. But I allowed Ayesha to run a business.”
“Why does she need your permission? When you ‘allow’ someone, you’re setting yourself in a position of authority. That’s not equality.”

Band Baaja Baarat

Shruti (Anushka Sharma) is an ambitious, no-nonsense young woman who launches a wedding planning business with her friend Bittoo. As first-timers, they work hard to convince customers to give them a chance, and finally, work their way to the top. Shruti has clear goals and works towards them with dedication – an inspiration to aspiring businesswomen!

Check out this scene, in which Bittoo gets bored when Shruti starts talking about her business plans. (Obviously, he comes back soon enough, begging for a job!)

English Vinglish

Shashi (Sridevi) is a homemaker and mom, who runs a laddoo business. She makes laddoos at home and delivers them to her customers. Her insensitive husband trivializes her business, and her obnoxious daughter makes fun of her for not knowing English! Shashi secretly takes English lessons, gains confidence, and teaches her family a lesson in love and understanding.

In this scene, Shashi struggles to hide her hurt when her husband jokes that she’s “born to make laddoos”.

Kal Ho Na Ho

Kal Ho Na Ho is a love story – more accurately, a love triangle – set in New York. One non-romantic subplot involves Jennifer (Jaya Bachchan), the leading lady’s mom. Jennifer is a single mom-of-three, and runs the unsuccessful ‘Café New York’. She is struggling to make ends meet, especially after her husband’s suicide.

With a little help, Jennifer turns her café into a vibrant, thriving Indian restaurant called “Café New Delhi”! Sometimes it’s best to play to one’s strengths 😊

Check out the cute café makeover scene!

Honorable mention: Bunty aur babli

Bunty aur Babli is a rambunctious movie featuring two con artists – Bunty (Abhishek Bachchan) and Babli (Rani Mukherjee). Babli may not be an entrepreneur in the traditional sense, but she is extremely innovative and quick-thinking, not to mention adorable and fun. She finds one way or the other to achieve her dreams of living life queen-size.

Here’s the catchy title track of Bunty Aur Babli.

Well, what do you think of these selections? Tell me about some of your favorite on-screen entrepreneurs in the comments!

About the author

This article was contributed by Aishwarya Pramod. Aishwarya is the operations specialist at Launch gURLs. She has played a key role in developing social impact reporting, process assessment, and documentation.