Top 10 Famous Bollywood Actresses as Prostitute in films

Playing the role of a real-life prostitute on the screen is quite a tough job for any actress, as it not only requires some skin-show and intimate scenes, but also one would need to follow the perfect kind of body language and dialogue delivery. However, no matter how tough the role would be, these Bollywood actresses do it very efficiently and in a very professional manner. Well, although the role could be a path-breaking one for their career, but some have won accolades for it and some have hardly raised a buzz. We bring you 10 such famous on-screen hookers aka prostitute in Bollywood, who have defined the role as per their era.

Legendary actress Meena Kumari's role in her Pakeezah (1972) is still being called as the original on-screen hooker in Hindi cinema. The shooting that started in 1964, however stopped a couple of months later, after almost half the movie was completed. The reason behind this was that the actress Kumari and her husband-director Kamal Amrohi got separated. When she took up the project again, she was very ill. And when the movie gained its box-office success, she just died two months after its release. The golden-hearted Lucknow prostitute that she enacted in the film is still one of the best female characters played in Hindi film industry, because the filmmakers these days just don't make them like her anymore.

Another actress that classifies the role of a prostitute is none other than but the versatile actress Rekha. She just mesmerized everybody with her ada in the earlier 80s, with her film Umrao Jaan (1981). The tragic tawaif, who had no luck in love and life and is left alone in a brothel, has drawn much appreciation from all over. Back then, the character and characterization of a hooker was different from what we now know, because at that point of time, these movies were period dramas and not contemporary. The sleaze was bare minimum, and the inner life reflected more on the screen.

As we are speaking about period and dramas, this 2002 remake of old-cult film 'Devdas' is another one, which is to be remember when it comes to onscreen prostitute. The Dhak-Dhak beauty Madhuri Dixit as the lovelorn Chandramukhi in the movie gave her own emotional touch. As a tawaif, she although has no such sequences on romantic love from her customers, but she cannot help to fall in love with the drunken Devdas. Needless to say, Madhuri won a number of awards for her role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's remake version of 'Devdas' that starred Shah Rukh Khan in lead.

There are those exceptional courageous movies in Bollywood, which give a picture of the rotten stench of real life. 'Chandni Bar' (2001) deals with the underworld life of Mumbai where the sons of gangsters take up arms, and the daughters of bar dancers and prostitutes end up in dance bars. Actress Tabu won many awards for her role as Mumtaz the bar dancer, including the National Film Award, who gets married to a gangster and has to opt the prostitution route to provide food and basic necessities for herself and her family. This one is a real eye-opener for the common people with half-baked ideas of a bar girl's life.

A light-hearted movie 'Chori Chori Chupke Chupke' (2001) saw Preity Zinta in one of the prostitute role, who acts and behaves like a funny girl, but is good at heart. It is a story of the transformation of a lowly prostitute to a groomed personality by a businessperson (Salman Khan) who needs her to be his childless wife's surrogate. While Preity takes up the job for the money, she cannot let go of her baby who she has took care for 9 months in her womb. But eventually she let go in the end, making an infertile couple happy, and quite the job of a prostitute to lead a good life.

Prostitution is primarily not carried out by self-choice and is more from emotional pressures by family, circumstances or from evil sections of society. Similar kind of story is being portrayed in this not-so-successful movie 'Market' (2003) that shows the under-age Manisha being sold off into the flesh trade by her new Arab sheikh husband. In a role that was surprisingly underrated, Manisha was brilliant as a hooker who goes on to punish herself.

Another actress who has also delivered superb roles as a prostitute is the very talented actress Rani Mukerji. She played Gulabji who narrates the story of 'Sawariya' and falls in love with the lead hero Ranbir Kapoor. However, just like we see in all other Bollywood hooker movies, she loses him to another woman (Sonam Kapoor).

In addition, her best performance as a prostitute was in YRF's 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag'. A heart-wrenching tale of what is the real story of many real-life prostitutes, the movie tell you about a girl who leaves her family to get a job in Mumbai to provide money and basic necessities for them, but ends up as a call girl in Mumbai. However, Bollywood had moved forward in its treatment of such characters, and sees her happily married with her love Abhishek Bachchan in the movie.

Kalki enacts the character of a new-age Chandramukhi in her contemporary take on 'Devdas', titled as 'Dev.D' (2009). In the film she is a high-class prostitute in night and a college student in day. It also throws light upon one of the newest and hottest phenomena that drags a civilized woman into the prostitution world, or rather becoming a call girl, and that is an MMS scandal, that shakes the girl's family into shame. A strong woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it, Kalki's character adds a new aspect to the role of a prostitute in Bollywood.

One of the finest prostitute roles in 2000's was played by Kareena Kapoor. She first played the role in 'Chameli' (2004), where she impresses Rahul Bose's character with her attitude of strength, kindness and compassion. It portrayed a kind of story where she was sold off into the flesh trade as a young girl by her uncle, which is actually usual occurrence in most parts of India.

The second movie where the actress plays a hooker is 'Talaash' (2012), which although does not stand in comparison with her role in 'Chameli', but even though gave a remarkable performance. The surprise element of her in the movie, and how her character is being used and has no importance in this 21st century, is being narrated in a nice manner.

We end this list with what prostitute roles in Bollywood have now come down to - a very short and cameo appearance with no specific character sketch. Shruti Haasan, as the latest to join the brigade, delivers a good performance although in D-Day (2013), but has a very small role in the movie. She falls in love with a RAW agent (Arjun Rampal), makes some lustful love and eventually dies by terrorist people. However, when crowd-pulling tricks are given more importance than real cinema, this is what we end up with.