Playing the role of a police officer on screen comes with its own set of challenges. Here’s a look at some actresses who have donned the uniform with elan

Mona

Tabu left a mark with the role of a grieving mother-cum-cop in Drishyam and its sequel; she donned the khaki in Kuttey again, demanding and commanding attention. Interestingly, this role was originally written for a male cop but was altered to facilitate her joining Aasmaan Bhardwaj’s directorial debut.

Controlled, brutal and raw, trust her to bring out different shades with each new outing. Bholaa sees her turn a policewali again, and at the trailer launch, she said, “Despite essaying a police officer in many films, I have been able to bring out different shades of those characters. In Bholaa, it’s a totally different once more.”

Interestingly, she played a cop in three more films — ACP Kiran Patekar in Kohram, ACP Gayathri Varma in Rakkilippattu (Malayalam) and ACP Gayatri in Snegithiye (Tamil). As we await her next cop avatar in March with Bholaa, where Ajay Devgn plays the titular role, we look at actresses who donned the uniform on screen with élan.

Thrice the joy

Priyanka Chopra impressed as FBI agent Alex Parrish in Quantico, but even before that she had turned cop in Bollywood. Undercover cop Roma, she impressed in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don, while reprising the role again in its sequel. Gunday saw Priyanka as an undercover inspector Nandita Sengupta, who plays the love interest of Bala and Bikram, roles essayed by Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, respectively. Her third outing as a cop finally had her don the uniform as Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Abha Mathur in Jai Gangaajal.

Packing a punch

Mardaani saw the queen of hearts Rani Mukerji play a tough crime branch officer Shivani Shivaji Roy, who is out to bust a child-trafficking racket. Her punches, both physical and verbal, impressed her fans. She reprised her act in Mardaani 2, in this outing nabbing a serial killer through a series of cat and mouse chases, while making a mark in uniform yet again.

Real & relatable

A tender mother and a tough cop is a heady combination, which one saw in Delhi Crime where seasoned actress Shefali Shah enacted the role of DCP Vartika Chaturvedi. This International Emmy winning show gave Shah’s career a big boost. The DCP of Delhi Crime was raw, real and relatable.

Brave act

Neha Dhupia’s role, ACP Catherine Alvarez, in A Thursday might not have been etched powerfully, but that she played a pregnant cop, not letting her physical condition come in way of work, was acknowledged. That she played the part when eight months pregnant was brave too! Raveena Tandon in the web series Aranyak played a cop really well.

If Rohit Shetty is filling his cop universe with swashbuckling men, lately we see a lot more women cops hogging limelight, especially on OTT. Sargun Mehta in Cuttputlli, Prachi Desai in Silence… Can You Hear It?, Huma Qureshi in D Day to Yami Gautam in Dasvi, there have been some fine performances. 

Coming soon…

From playing a rather demure Rajjo Shreshawat, wife of Dabangg cop Chulbul Pandey, Sonakhi Sinha is all set to take the OTT world by storm with her cop act in Dahaad. Playing sub-inspector Anjali Bhaati, the upcoming web series, created by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, looks promising.

Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force marks not just Sidharth Malhotra’s OTT debut but also presents the sultry Shilpa Shetty in a cop’s role. “Welcome to the squad Shilpa! Get ready for gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, high speed chases and, yes, flying cars…Indian police ….” posted Rohit Shetty, who debuts in OTT space with this eight-part series.