Actress Malavika Mohanan Highlights Rarity of Female-Led Big Budget Films in Indian Cinema
Actor Malavika Mohanan has highlighted what she sees as an enduring trend in the Indian film industry: big-budget films are generally led by male actors, with few major productions built around female performers. Speaking about the landscape of large-scale cinema, she said that many producers and industry figures still believe that movies with women in the lead do not have the same box-office pull as those led by men, which limits investment in high-budget projects featuring female protagonists.
According to Mohanan, this hesitancy has resulted in only a handful of big films being made with women at the forefront, despite growing evidence that audiences will support well-made stories regardless of gender. She added that the success of Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra, a superhero film from the Malayalam film industry centered on Kalyani Priyadarshan’s character Chandra, was a rare example where producers took a risk on a female lead - and it paid off.
Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra is considered a relatively high-profile Malayalam project, backed by Dulquer Salmaan’s production house and directed by Dominic Arun. The film has performed well commercially and resonated with both fans and critics thanks to its compelling content and the strength of its lead performance. According to Mohanan, the film’s success demonstrates what can happen when producers place their faith in talented female actors and strong scripts, instead of defaulting to male-centric casting norms.
Malavika herself has worked on several high-budget projects throughout her career, often sharing screen space with some of Indian cinema’s biggest male stars. However, her comments underscore that even today, the default assumption among some decision-makers is that films headlined by women cannot command the same market confidence or financial backing as those led by men. She argued that this mindset needs to change to achieve more balanced representation in mainstream and big-budget cinema going forward.
Her remarks align with a broader conversation within Indian cinema about representation and opportunity. There have been notable female-led films in recent years - in Hindi, Malayalam and other regional industries - that have found both critical acclaim and commercial success, suggesting audiences are open to diverse storytelling. Yet, the industry’s risk-averse financing structures still tend to favour male leads when large budgets are involved, Mohanan noted.
The success of Lokah: Chapter 1 - Chandra and other female-fronted projects is encouraging to many, but the conversation sparked by Mohanan’s comments highlights how much further the industry may have to go before female leads are a regular feature of big-budget films rather than an exception.
According to Mohanan, this hesitancy has resulted in only a handful of big films being made with women at the forefront, despite growing evidence that audiences will support well-made stories regardless of gender. She added that the success of Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra, a superhero film from the Malayalam film industry centered on Kalyani Priyadarshan’s character Chandra, was a rare example where producers took a risk on a female lead - and it paid off.
Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra is considered a relatively high-profile Malayalam project, backed by Dulquer Salmaan’s production house and directed by Dominic Arun. The film has performed well commercially and resonated with both fans and critics thanks to its compelling content and the strength of its lead performance. According to Mohanan, the film’s success demonstrates what can happen when producers place their faith in talented female actors and strong scripts, instead of defaulting to male-centric casting norms.
Malavika herself has worked on several high-budget projects throughout her career, often sharing screen space with some of Indian cinema’s biggest male stars. However, her comments underscore that even today, the default assumption among some decision-makers is that films headlined by women cannot command the same market confidence or financial backing as those led by men. She argued that this mindset needs to change to achieve more balanced representation in mainstream and big-budget cinema going forward.
Her remarks align with a broader conversation within Indian cinema about representation and opportunity. There have been notable female-led films in recent years - in Hindi, Malayalam and other regional industries - that have found both critical acclaim and commercial success, suggesting audiences are open to diverse storytelling. Yet, the industry’s risk-averse financing structures still tend to favour male leads when large budgets are involved, Mohanan noted.
The success of Lokah: Chapter 1 - Chandra and other female-fronted projects is encouraging to many, but the conversation sparked by Mohanan’s comments highlights how much further the industry may have to go before female leads are a regular feature of big-budget films rather than an exception.
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