Rashmika Mandanna’s upcoming film, The Girlfriend, was supposed to be a statement on women’s empowerment.
Instead, it’s become a lightning rod for debate — and for all the wrong reasons.
The trailer promises yet another story about a woman breaking free from a “toxic” boyfriend. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Bollywood’s idea of empowerment hasn’t evolved beyond heartbreak and rebellion.
Empowerment isn’t running away from a man.
It’s running your own life.
🎭 THE PROBLEM: bollywood THINKS FREEDOM IS A BREAKUP
Every few months, a new film markets itself as “feminist” — but the formula never changes.
Girl meets boy. The boy becomes toxic. girl cries, cuts her hair, dumps him, and smiles into the sunset.
Cue empowerment music. Roll credits.
This is not empowerment.
This is emotional recycling.
When did “escaping” become the new definition of strength?
Why is a woman’s entire transformation always tied to a man — whether she’s falling for him, fighting him, or fleeing him?
bollywood keeps selling rebellion, not rebuilding.
🧠 THE QUESTION WE NEED TO ASK
Why do our films never show women who:
Build careers instead of boycotting boyfriends?
Buy their own homes instead of moving into another man’s apartment?
Chase financial freedom instead of chasing validation?
Shape their identity without needing trauma as the plot device?
Because it’s easier to sell heartbreak than hard work.
Easier to make rebellion glamorous than to make growth inspiring.
The industry doesn’t know how to write ambitious women — only angry ones.
💼 REAL EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE THIS
Empowerment isn’t about who you leave.
It’s about who you become.
It’s the woman who stays up late studying for her UPSC exam, not for a man’s approval.
It’s the one who launches her small business with her savings, not her boyfriend’s money.
It’s the one who says, “I’m not independent because I left someone — I’m independent because I built something.”
That’s the story no one is telling — because it doesn’t fit the drama template.
💣 THE ROOT PROBLEM: CONSUMER FEMINISM
Modern cinema packages feminism like a fashion trend.
A rebellious outfit. A breakup monologue. A glass of wine and a “self-love” dialogue — all wrapped in glossy instagram feminism.
It’s empowerment for the camera, not the culture.
What The Girlfriend gets wrong — like so many others — is mistaking attitude for agency.
Real empowerment doesn’t happen in slow-motion montages.
It happens in decisions, discipline, and direction.
🧩 THE DOUBLE STANDARD NO ONE TALKS ABOUT
When a man leaves a relationship and builds his career, he’s “focused.”
When a woman does the same, she’s “cold” or “selfish.”
So bollywood plays it safe — it doesn’t show women building empires, because that doesn’t fit the emotional arc the audience is used to.
Instead, they give her tears, trauma, and a token scene of “finding herself.”
But here’s the truth: women don’t need to “find” themselves.
They’ve always known who they are — the world just refuses to write them that way.
⚖️ ESCAPE ISN’T EMPOWERMENT — EVOLUTION IS
Walking away from toxicity is healthy. But it’s not the end of the story — it’s the first page.
Empowerment begins when women stop being written as reactive characters — victims, survivors, escapees — and start being written as creators of their own fate.
A woman’s worth isn’t defined by the man she leaves behind — it’s defined by the future she builds ahead.
So yes, break free — but then build something unbreakable.
🔥 FINAL WORD: bollywood, DO BETTER
It’s 2025.
If our “empowerment” stories still revolve around men, we’ve missed the point entirely.
women don’t need another film that tells them they’re powerful because they left someone.
They need stories that tell them they’re powerful because they lead, achieve, and transform.
Rashmika’s The Girlfriend could’ve been a turning point.
Instead, it’s a reminder that India’s biggest film industry still doesn’t understand India’s strongest women.
Because real empowerment isn’t cinematic.
It’s earned, built, and lived.
And until our movies learn that, the women they claim to celebrate will remain just another plot device.
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