This article explores the stark gender imbalance in Indian patriotic cinema. Despite a history rich with female icons in administration, science, and social reform, holiday releases remain dominated by male-centric war narratives. It calls on filmmakers and audiences to recognize that national service has no gender.
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This weekend of the Republic Day, I along with my family went to watch Border 2. The movie has four main protagonists. All males. The release was timely as the entire nation fills with temporary patriotism around these times. This made me think, how many movies get female heroes which get released at the time of Independence and Republic days?
Why is our screen flooded with the same hyper-masculine roars every January and August? We see men in uniform, men in slow motion, and men saving the nation. But where are the women who built this nation?
The Staggering Numbers
In the last five years, the “Patriotic Blockbuster” has become a male-dominated machine. Since 2021, nearly 80% of major patriotic films released in the holiday windows have featured male leads. When we look at the box office, the gap is even more depressing. Male-led films like Pathaan or Gadar 2 cross the ₹500 crore to ₹1,000 crore mark. Meanwhile, brilliant female-led stories like Article 370 or Raazi are celebrated as “brave attempts” if they cross ₹100 crore.
According to various gender studies in Indian cinema, female characters make up only about 35% of protagonists. In the specific genre of “Nation-Building,” that number drops significantly. Our filmmakers seem to believe that the “Hero of the Nation” must have a beard and a deep voice.
More Than Just War
Do we not have hundreds of stories of women in administrative service, police, medicine, and science? India is a nation that has always kept women in high stage and prayed women in form of Devis. We worship Durga for strength and Saraswati for wisdom. Yet, on the silver screen, we rarely see a female officer’s struggle against corruption portrayed as patriotic.
Take the story of Anna Rajam Malhotra. When she topped the IAS interview in 1951, the board discouraged her, suggesting she join the Foreign Service instead because it was “more suitable for a woman.” Anna didn’t budge. She insisted on the IAS, becoming a trailblazer who refused to be confined to a desk. She went on to build Mumbai’s massive modern port, a feat of engineering that feeds our economy every single day. She fought the silent battles of bureaucracy with nerves of steel. Why isn’t her story a Republic Day blockbuster?
Similarly, we celebrate missile launches with male-led narratives, but where is the epic for Tessy Thomas? Known as the “Missile Woman of India,” she directed the Agni-IV project. Her life is a high-stakes thriller of science and security. Yet, writers rarely do the research to figure out these women heroes. They prefer the easy route of fictionalized border wars.
Who is to Blame?
Is only the filmmaker to be blamed? Or should we, the people, also take a hard look in the mirror? A filmmaker is a businessman. They make what sells. If we flock to theaters only when a male superstar screams a dialogue, we are the ones funding this bias.
We complain about the lack of depth in cinema. However, we rarely give the same “opening day” energy to a film led by a woman hero. We have created an environment where “patriotism” is synonymous with “masculinity.” This mindset tells our young girls that they can be “protected” by the hero, but they cannot be the hero. Even when we have figures like Usha Mehta, who ran a secret radio during the 1942 movement, we wait for an OTT release rather than a theatrical explosion.
Time for a New Script
It is time to ask for more. We need writers to dig deeper into our history and our modern success stories. We need producers to stop being afraid of big budgets for female leads. Most importantly, we need an audience that treats a woman’s contribution to the nation as equally “heroic” as a man’s battle on the border.
The next time a Republic Day window opens, I hope the poster shows a woman lead. Not as a sister or a wife, but as the one holding the flag. Patriotism should not be a gender-coded emotion. It belongs to all of us.
Clear Cut Gender Desk
New Delhi, UPDATED: Jan 27, 2026 09 :00 IST
Written By: Paresh Kumar
