Golmaal director Rohit Shetty has expressed interest to make a film revolving around a female police officer. Known for his cop dramas Singham and Singham Returns, Rohit is working with Ranveer Singh on Simmba. He is also working on the script for a film with a woman cop as the lead.
“We are planning, we are working on the script. Like we have Singham, Simmba, we could have a lady Singham. It will take time. We are creating a universe where we will have a lady cop,” he said.
Tough lady cops are no stranger to Bollywood. The Woods recalls some films featuring no-nonsense women in khaki.
Zakhmi Aurat (1988)
The story of how a police officer, gang-raped and then denied justice, punishes the rapists by forming a gang of wronged women. Dimple Kapadia is the cop in this film peppered with explicit scenes of the rapists being identified, trapped and castrated.
Phool Bane Angaray (1991)
A grieving wife decides to join the force after her husband is murdered for looking into a corrupt gangster. Rekha is the fearless cop in this K.C. Bokadia film. After inspector Ranjit Singh, played by Rajinikanth, is killed leaving Rekha’s character Namrata with two young children, she doesn’t cower down. Instead, she becomes an officer and brings the culprits, led by Prem Chopra, to justice.
Samay: When Time Strikes (2003)
Sushmita Sen investigates a serial killer in this thriller, as time literally runs out. Playing ACP Malvika Chauhan, Sush figures out what connects the three victims, and soon who the killer (Jackie Shroff) is too. But she fails to save his fourth target — her 10-year-old daughter, with eyesight power of -2. To avenge her death, Malvika kills him at 12 midnight.
Mardaani (2014)
Rani Mukerji’s comeback film before Hichki! She plays Shivani Shivaji Roy who goes after an organised child trafficking and drugs racket. Refusing to let child traffickers escape, Rani’s character — foster parent to one of the abducted girls — chases Tahir Raj Bhasin from Bombay to Delhi, single-handedly confronting the bad guys. At the end, to avoid Bhasin escaping the law, she hands him over to the girls who beat him to death.
Drishyam (2015)
Tabu plays tough Goa officer Meera Deshmukh, out to know the truth about her missing son — who was blackmailing Ajay Devgn’s daughter for sexual favours. She stops at nothing, even arresting Devgn and his family to obtain information. At the end, Tabu — aware of her son’s crime — and her husband leave for London, apologetic for her behaviour.
Jai Gangaajal (2016)
The sequel to the 2003 Ajay Devgn-starrer Gangaajal; this one starring Priyanka Chopra. She was already working in the US, on her FBI crime drama Quantico, by then. But PeeCee returns to her roots for this film that again explores the politican-police nexus. However, the film does focus a bit too much on Prakash Jha who made his debut as a corrupt cop who later comes to his senses, somewhat.
Honourable mentions
- Madhuri Dixit in Khalnayak
- Hema Malini in Andha Kanoon
- Preity Zinta in Sangharsh
- Bipasha Basu in Gunaah
- Huma Qureshi in D Day
