Bollywood is a huge industry across the world making hundreds of crores every year with some actors and actresses raking in big moolah. It has come a long way from the kind of cinema that it used to produce and the way it used to treat its actors and actresses. But there still remains a great divide in the way the silver screen treats its female folk. Actresses are treated differently, and are primarily known for their looks, rather than their performances.

Of actresses and comebacks

Let's take Madhuri Dixit for instance. Most people remember her as the Dhak Dhak girl for the dance number she did decades ago. Despite making a comeback and acting in movies like Gulab Gang, she is considered an actress of a bygone era. She is now remembered for being a reality show judge rather than for her acting skills, which, by the way, have only got better with age.

It's not just Madhuri, there are a lot of other actresses like Kajol, Preity Zinta and Sridevi, who despite being impeccable at what they did, couldn't survive the test of time, and are now only seen at award functions and reality shows.

Bollywood : All about the male 'superstars'

When we talk about 'superstars,' all that comes to our mind is Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, or even Ranbir Kapoor and the likes. Why does no actress ever make it to the list of superstars? Why do people still not care who the actress in the movie is if it has SRK or Salman in it ? Why is it okay for Rajinikanth to romance actresses half his age, but not the other way round? And why do Bollywood offers dry up for actresses in their late 30s, while men continue to rule the roost even in their late 40s? The questions are many. Here, we try to look at the bias from an audience's perspective: