Unlike Hollywood, there is hardly any opportunities for women in Bollywood spy thriller, a genre that has traditionally been among the industry's most sexist. But this March, Tapsee Pannu in Naam Shabana changed the game. After her hard-hitting role in 2016 courtroom drama Pink, Pannu portrayed a fierce and emotion-free undercover agent in the espionage drama. The film, which grossed over $7.5 million, is a torchbearer of a promising, relatively new genre trend: the era of action movies starring women.

“While it is great that India has improved its ranking in doing business, and young entrepreneurs will benefit from it, we are overlooking the importance of gender equality. It's not possible for India to become a global economic power if half of its population is ignored, and not given more economic oppurtunities,” says Shipra Dawar, founder of ePsyclinic, an online clinic for mental health. “Government and businesses have to join hands to make women a key in India’s growth story.”