Shamita Shetty in Zeher

Shamita Shetty is the latest addition to the list of Bollywood women who’ve donned the uniform of public service much before she was a cop in Zeher. Incidentally it was Shamita’s sister Shilpa who had done the role of a counter terrorist agent in Anubhav Sinha’s earlier film Dus.

Anubhav must probably like seeing his women in uniform more specifically the Shetty sisters. But nonetheless it’s noble of the Indian film industry to regularly show female lead actors playing a role that does not see enough women participating. Almost all of our leading actresses have done so at least once in their career. We show you some of them from the recent past

Bipasha Basu in Dhoom 2 (2006)

Bipasha Basu’s character ACP Shonali Bose is introduced in the sequel where she plays the female equivalent of ACP Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) the tough, no-nonsense cop. Incidentally this is what draws her to the married cop.

But after a botched attempt between them to catch the master thief Mr. Hrithik Roshan we don’t see much of the cop character. What we see instead is her ditzy twin sister Monali Bose who is also played by Bipasha.

Tabu in Fanaa (2006)

Tabu plays Malini Tyagi the director of the anti terrorist squad (ATS). Malini’s main task is to track down the terrorist Rehaan (Aamir Khan) who is looking to get control of nuclear device in order to threaten the country.

Being a high-ranking official Tabu is seen dressed in a suit and mostly issues her commands from the base. The chase is left to her subordinates.

Isha Koppikar in Kya Kool Hain Hum (2005)

Amusingly Isha Koppikar’s character in this film has been named Urmila Martondkar. True to her name Urmila is a beautiful yet tough police officer. She plays an unrefined Maharashtrian lady in search of a serial killer of women.

The prime suspect is Rahul (Tusshar Kapoor) but due to lack of evidence she must transforms herself into an ordinary woman and get closer to him so that she can catch him in the act.

Priety Zinta in Sangarsh (1999)

As hard as it may be to believe even the cute and bubbly Priety Zinta played an officer of the law sometime during the beginning of her career. In Sangarsh, she plays a CBI officer by the name of Reet Oberoi.

The film has been inspired by the famous Silence of the Lambs and it has Preity Zinta filling out the ‘heavy’ shoes of agent Clarice Sterling (Jodie Foster). Although playing a law enforces Preity Zinta mostly stays out of uniform in this film.

Shilpa Shetty in Dus (2005)

Anubhav Sinha’s earlier film Dus has the other Shetty sister playing a cop. Shilpa plays Aditi an agent with the Anti-Terrorist Cell. However her job becomes difficult when she herself becomes a suspect while pursuing the suspected terrorist.

Being a glamorous film, Shilpa is mostly seen wearing sporty and trendy clothes.

Seema Biswas in Ek Hasina Thi (2004)

Seema plays ACP Malti Vaidya a cop in pursuit of the escaped convict Sarika (Urmila Matondkar).

While on the chase Malti discovers that Sarika isn’t really the culprit and has been framed. Seema is mostly known for playing the Bandit Queen so her stern image was always well in place to help her in playing a cop.

Sushmita Sen in Samay (2003)

You would never have guessed that Miss Universe Sushmita would play the Bollywood equivalent of Brad Pitt! But that she does in a film that’s partially inspired by the Hollywood film Seven.

Sushmita plays a top cop named Malvika Chauhan in pursuit of a serial killer who’s interested in killing individuals who are the best at their professions. Despite being a beauty queen Sushmita does the job of playing a determined and dedicated police officer in a fine manner. Prior to that she also wore Khakee in Aaghaaz.

Sandhya Mridul in Waisa Bhi Hota Hain (2003)

While the film is about the crazy journey of copywriter Punit Sayal (Arshad Warsi) who ends up finding himself between Mumbai’s gang wars. Sandhya Mridul plays his cop-girlfriend Agni who he leaves behind.

After parting ways its strange co-incidence that brings the two together as her pursuit of gangsters leads her running into him at a gangster’s hideout. Sandhya being a tough mulgi herself was able to do a thorough job.

Raveena Tandon in Vijeta (1996)

We’ve seen Raveena play the girlfriend/wife of the honest police officer in Mohra and Shool, but with Vijeta she too got a chance to wear the police officer’s uniform.

She plays inspector Vijaya a cop in pursuit of the vigilante advocate Ashok (Sanjay Dutt). Vijaya is eager to nab Ashok but on every occasion he murders a criminal, but every time he comes up with an alibi.

Juhi Chawla in Naajayaz (1995)

Although we can’t imagine chirpy Juhi playing the part of an intense cop, she has done so on two occasions. The first is Naajayaz (1995) where she plays the role of inspector Sandhya who’s in love with her partner Inspector Jay Bakshi (Ajay Devgan).

Juhi plays the part of his loyal partner who helps him to apprehend a local gang lord. The other is where she’s playing an undercover agent, Juhi fans will know this film, but for the others we won’t blow her cover. The next was in One Two Ka Four where initially she is shown as a typical Punjabi village girl but ends up being an undercover special agent.

Vijayshanti in Tejaswani (1994)

Based on the real-life top cop Kiran Bedi, the darling of the south Vijayshanti plays a daring and brave cop ACP Tejasvini Joshi (Vijayshanti) that remains true to her ideals despite having been surrounded by corruption on every side.

She takes on the son of a crime lord (Amrish Puri) for raping a woman. Despite having done this crime the son Devendra Kumar contests for the chair of the chief minister. But it’s that one crime that leads to ending his ambition.

Madhuri Dixit in Khalnayak (1993)

Madhuri has the honor of playing the first well-known woman jailor onscreen. She plays the pure Ganga who transforms herself to the girl that sang the memorable yet alluring ‘Choli Ke Peche Kya Ha’ song.

She even joins the gang of the anti-hero Ballu (Sanjay Dutt) for the sake of her fiance Ram (Jackie Shroff). This modern-day Sita willfully goes along with Ravan.

Shilpa Shirodkar in Khuda Gawah (1992)

In a film that spans two generations, Shilpa Shirodkar’s cop character appears in the second one. She plays Inspector Henna Ranveer Sethi the daughter of a brave Rajput jailor.

Obviously she inherits those very genes and is also a very able police officer.