The year saw some fabulous performances by female leads in the Hindi film industry, but some artistes stood out because of their brave choices and ability to elevate the characters that they played.
* Bhumi Pednekar
She dismissed any notions anyone could have had of her being a one-film wonder. There was a lull after her impressive debut in Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), but Bhumi Pednekar proved in 2017 that she’s a powerhouse performer to reckon with. She featured in two highly appreciated films, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Shubh Mangal Savdhan, and took on roles that a relative newcomer would have probably shied away from. In the former, she played an opinionated, small-town girl and managed to hold her own against a seasoned actor like Akshay Kumar.
* Swara Bhaskar
If she could get noticed despite having small roles in films like Raanjhanaa (2013) and Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo (2015), playing the lead would automatically mean garnering more accolades for her acting prowess. And that’s what she did, both in 2016 and 2017. While she beautifully essayed the role of a maid-cum-single mother in Nil Battey Sannata in 2016, in 2017, she made her presence felt with a feisty performance in Anaarkali of Aarah. She played an erotic dancer from a small hamlet in Bihar and beautifully conveyed the trials and tribulations faced by such performers.
* Zaira Wasim
The promise that she showed in her debut film Dangal (2016) was on display yet again in Secret Superstar (2017). The confidence with which the teenager played a schoolgirl with dreams of becoming a singer despite belonging to a conservative household was impossible to ignore. She displayed a wide range of emotions convincingly, making everyone sing her praises. The film went on to become a commercial success and was appreciated for its solid content as well. Aamir Khan, who has featured in both the films with Wasim, has been quoted as saying that she is the finest actor in the Hindi film industry
* Kangana Ranaut
She starred in two films in 2017, Rangoon and Simran, and both failed to live up to expectations. However, she was exceptionally good in them… so much so that she managed to salvage weak scripts and give them respectability with her performances. In the former, she played a yesteryear actor and a sensitive lover with aplomb while in the latter, she gave a masterclass in acting. Her understanding of the various layers of her character–a Gujarati girl-turned-bank robber after being addicted to gambling–and her flawless depiction of the same made it one of the best performances of 2017.
* Vidya BalanWith Tumhari Sulu (2017), Vidya Balan finally had a hit to her name after a string of flops over the last few years. She began the year with Begum Jaan which was also rejected by the audiences. There was never any question mark over Balan’s ability as an actor, but Tumhari Sulu just reconfirmed what everyone already knows: That she can pull off a film on her own. She was real and believable as a middle-class housewife-turned-radio jockey caught between her family responsibilities and her own ambitions.