During 90s-2000s commercial directors like KRR cast many young actresses, especially from North such as Divya Bharati, Nagma, Anjala Zaveri etc. opposite big heroes in their movies thus kickstarting what is infamously known as the flowerpot era of actresses in the industry.

Some heroines made their name doing such roles before graduating to female oriented movies eg. Sweety, Nayanthara, Vijaya Shanti; some got typecast before fading away or moving elsewhere & being replaced by new faces eg. Shriya, Kajal, Rakul; other actresses who mostly did girl next door, homely characters couldn’t sustain for long because they didn’t fit such roles.

Hard truth is our industry is patriarchal & our fans & audiences want to see heroism in movies, the double standards are that they won’t allow native heroines especially daughters from nepo families to do such kind of roles yet go gaga seeing actresses imported from other states doing the same; irony is the last truly successful mainstream native heroine Rambha was famous for doing flowerpot roles in almost entirety of her career.

Although the scenario is changing in recent times, with new age directors & writers & rise in well written, well acted female characters especially in mainstream movies, flowerpot/glam roles continue to be prevalent & many young heroines still keep doing them, especially opposite senior heroes to make a name for themselves. I mean look at how Jahnvi Kapoor was picturised in the recently released song for Peddi, this says something about mindset of mass audiences which somehow still remains the same despite our industry going global thanks to efforts of Rajamouli.

Do you think this infamous era will come to an end, sooner the better?