Be it the middle-class woman fighting against crimes and prejudices of upper class society, the lonely spouse struggling to find fulfilment in her marriage, or the confident individual who flaunts her sexuality to climb the ladder of success — women-centric films in Bollywood ruled the roost this year.

The top Bollywood releases of 2011 redefined womanhood and what came across was a flurry of unconventional films right from Rajkumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica to Vishal Bharadwaj's critically-acclaimed 7 Khoon Maaf and Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture .

stellar performance

The year 2011 took off to a flying start for Vidya Balan with her stellar performance as a de-glamorised, strong-willed woman in the real-life inspired No One Killed Jessica . She signed off the year with a bang with her riveting portrayal of a dancing star Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture. The movie raked in Rs 50 crore at the box office in the first week itself.

It turned out to be the most talked about film of the year with Balan playing an unabashed sex siren portraying the rise and fall of southern seductress of the 1980s Silk Smitha. The year also saw Priyanka Chopra spring back into action with Vishal Bharadwaj's dark comedy 7 Khoon Maaf in the character of a serial spouse-killer, Sussanna.

The actor won the National Award for the role. She will be back in the year-end as Shah Rukh Khan's junglee billi in the much-awaited Don 2 . The free-spirited girl played by Katrina Kaif in the multi-starrer Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and as the effervescent Dimple Dixit in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan , the actress left an impact in the minds of the public with strong on-screen characters that challenged the social conventions and broke many rules.

21st century women

While these big budget films transformed the cinematic space into a vibrant reflection of the various facets of the 21st century women, low-budget films such as Shaitan and That Girl in Yellow Boots pushed further the conventional image of the Indian woman.

They explored mature topics such as incest and drug abuse with the portrayal of unapologetically amoral characters played by the leading female protagonist.

In these films, Kalki Koechlin's portrayal of a mentally disturbed person, someone in search of her father and a lost girl abandoned by her boyfriend, have reassured cinebuffs of her capacity as a new age, commercially-viable actress who dares to choose different roles.

Bollywood gave a series of strong women characters through films like Tanu Weds Manu, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, Not A Love Story and Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster making 2011 a year to be remembered for its engaging and diverse characterisations of women.  Anushka Sharma sizzled in her roles as a strong young woman in Yash Raj Films' Ladies vs Ricky Bahl.

Her vivaciousness and perfect dancing skills catapulted her into the league of promising leading ladies of tinsel town today.

Mahie Gill, too, had a satisfying year. Though her films, Utt Patang, Not A Love Story and Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster this year didn't exactly set the cash registers ringing, her performances came for critical appreciation especially for their realistic portrayals and the fact that she had opted to choose the kind of films which were away from tried-and-tested formulae.

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