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Indian cinema’s most compelling stories this year are increasingly coming from women who write and direct their own work. These are fierce filmmakers, unafraid to move between genres, scales, and mediums while holding onto a distinct point of view.
From a National Award-winning storyteller making her boldest genre leap yet, to a debutant who built her first feature from nothing but conviction, this year’s list of women writer-directors reflects an industry that’s widening, slowly, but unmistakably, to make room for original, personal, and often genre-defying storytelling. Here are five names contributing to that shift.
Geetu Mohandas
Known for acclaimed indie work like Liar’s Dice and Moothon, Geetu Mohandas has made a dramatic leap into big-budget mainstream cinema with Toxic, a period gangster film starring Yash, marking one of the most ambitious swings by any Indian director this year.
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
The filmmaker behind Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and Panga returned this year with System, a legal drama starring Sonakshi Sinha and Jyothika, continuing her run of grounded, character-driven stories with a woman-led courtroom thriller.
Meghna Gulzar
Following Raazi and Sam Bahadur, Meghna’s next film Daayra is an investigative crime thriller starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, exploring how a single act can fracture public opinion, slated for release later this year.
Radhika Bansal
A former corporate professional-turned-first-time filmmaker, Radhika Bansal has written and directed her feature debut, a Diwali-film all set for release on a leading OTT platform. Her debut outing brings an outsider POV and a deliberately warm, understated register to the genre.
Indira Dhar
The Bengali filmmaker behind Oscar-shortlisted Putul, Indira Dhar has followed up with a rapid slate of new work, including her Hindi-language feature Echoes of Valour in 2025 and A Tale of Two Women in 2026, both of which were launched at Cannes, cementing her place as one of the most prolific independent voices in the filmmaking industry in recent years.
Taken together, these five filmmakers represent very different corners of Indian cinema. From an Rs 800-crore PAN-India gangster epic to an intimate festival-set family drama, they share a common thread. Each is telling stories on her own terms, often ones drawn from deeply personal instincts. As the industry continues to expand what counts as commercially and critically viable, these are the women writer-directors whose work is worth following closely this year.
