10 exciting female villains we have a lot to learn from

Not just badass, but baddies too

What’s that one thing women get for free, all our lives? Apart from unsolicited advice? The high pedestal of being the sushil sanskari naari. Society elevates us to an exalted status, by virtue of which we can never do the wrong thing, then shares a laundry list of things we absolutely cannot do. From uncrossing your legs and sitting comfortably, to physically and metaphorically taking up space, from saying no, to saying yes. We’re expected to abide by these stringent rules, and are punished, if we break any. And it’s perhaps the antithesis of this sushil sanskari naari that draws us to female villains and women of muddled morals, like Taapsee Pannu’s character Rani in her latest film, Haseen Dillruba.

Playing a woman accused of murder and guilty of adultery, Pannu declares, “Female characters conform to this stereotype: vamp or sati savitri. Many actresses are also scared that people will identify them as their characters, and avoid grey roles. But women, too, can be leaders who make questionable choices. We can be evil, we can be anti-heroes, because we too have the choice to simply be bad,” she says.

It reminds me of another female villain I recently learnt to love and fear in equal measure, Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson in I Care A Lot. She’s a con artist, ruthlessly scamming dadis and nanis by convincing the legal system to grant her guardianship over them, and steals their assets to fund her opulent lifestyle.

Her vision is transparent, albeit far removed from the moral compass of society. “There’s two types of people in the world: the people who take, and those gettin’ took. Predators and prey. Lions and lambs. My name is Marla Grayson, and I’m not a lamb. I am a f*ck*ng lioness!”

Grayson’s is a story of survival, despite her questionable morals, and we want her confidence, guts and her wardrobe.

Not a woman scorned

We’re used to seeing female villains spurred by cheating partners, filial betrayal or jealousy. Shoutout to most of Michael Douglas’s heroines in the ’90s: Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, Catherine Trumell in Basic Instinct, and Meredith Johnson in Disclosure. Or closer home, Rekha in Khoon Bhari Maang and Urmila Matondkar in Ek Haseena Thi.

But the trope of revenge-seeking women hasn’t aged well.

We’re now looking for women who flip the narrative of damsel in distress without any catalyst. They don’t wave the victim card, but will render anybody in their way, helpless. They have no time to waste on society’s code and conduct. Whether it’s Cruella’s appetite for mischief or the con brigade of Ocean’s 8 looting the MET gala, their actions are indefensible in a court of law. And they couldn’t care less.

They are causing a riot, and from the confines of our sanskari set-up, we are vicariously slipping into their shoes. Nasty yet refreshing in equal parts. And this is our sly petition to turn villain-verse into an equal-opportunity employer. After all, true equality means accepting that women can be as nefarious as anyone else.

From Bond films and workplace comedies, to legal dramas and dysfunctional families, this throwback will remind you of some of the most conniving yet enticing female villains, and what we want to learn from them. From Cersei’s persistent self-belief, to Tara Khanna’s relentless pursuit of a better life in Made in Heaven, these women prove they don’t need to have a change of heart or moment of redemption to leave you with lessons.

10 female villains we’re seeing in new light

Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder

Evidence tampering, hacking, and covering up murders as a side hustle, professor of criminal law and defence attorney Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) doesn’t have the makings of a goody-two-shoes role model. Yet she is an inspiration to all her students, especially the Keating 5, the five chosen ones who work closely with her.

In this show that follow the six as they deal with the aftermath of a murder, Keating thrives in the high-stress environment, by hook or by crook, establishing herself as the quintessential anti-hero.

If you happen to watch a random episode of How To Get Away With Murder, you’ll find her character obnoxiously unlikable, but time and again, she has proven to her team that she will take a bullet for them.  Naturally then, the loyalty is reciprocated.

Keating has built a formidable niche for herself in the gentlemen’s club, and a permanent place in her team’s heart. Her commitment to her work and her team is enviable and a temperament we’d like to emulate; it makes her a boss we’d kill to work for.

Watch on Netflix

Claire Underwood in House of Cards

If you take a few murders off her plate, there’s much to learn from the planned precision of Claire Underwood (Robin Wright), the fictional President of the United States, in the political thriller that followed her Congressman husband exact revenge on those who betrayed him.

And in case you cross paths with Underwood, remember that you’re only as good as your last move. If you’ve deceived her or didn’t live up to her Everest-high expectations, Underwood won’t think twice before losing you.

She is fascinating in the most despicable sense of the term, and with the power at her disposal in the final season of the show, there’s nothing Underwood can’t do.

But more than the actual actions, it’s her farsightedness that we could all use in surplus. She is always ready with her five-year vision and acts accordingly. Short-term failings and setbacks don’t shake her spirit. Nothing in the present shocks her or scares her.

We’d choose to steal her meticulous skills of long-term planning; a sure shot way to spare ourselves sleepless nights.

Watch on Netflix

Anuradha Kishore in Tandav

What would you do if you know that your significant other, who is also the PM of the country, is going to be poisoned? Alert them? Sabotage the plan without having them panic?

If you’re Anuradha Kishore (Dimple Kapadia in her web series debut), you’d let the plan unfold the way it is hatched, and consider it a launch pad for your political career.

In the dark political drama, when Kishore learns about the assassination plan of Devki Nandan (Tigmanshu Dhulia), she lets her ambition take centre stage. What follows is a monstrous game of manipulation to attain the most powerful chair of the country.

Kishore is calm, extremely self-aware and has a strong network of friends in the right places to know what’s going on outside her office and villa.

People-management, thy name is Anuradha Kishore.

She knows when to give people incentives, and when to cut them down. She has perfected the carrot-and-stick approach, a soft skill not many business schools will teach you.

Fortunately, we have Kishore’s guide to keeping your frenemies close and alienate non-essential people. Saves a lot of bruised egos and hearts.

Watch on Prime Video

Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love

She is unlike any other woman spotted in Bond movies. Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) isn’t skinny-dipping on exotic beaches or running a flying circus of female pilots, or just looking glamorous to seduce Bond.

Klebb, in fact, is not smitten by Bond’s brooding looks. In this 1963 Bond movie, she is the head of SMERSH torture and investigation division, who coerces Tatiana Romanova, a former employee of the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul, to seduce James Bond (Sean Connery), in order to kill him.

Klebb essentially is a sadist, who even kicks the life out of Bond with the unique poison-tipped blades hidden in her shoes. But she also has a single-minded focus on the goal.

She categorically eliminates distractions, and races ahead in the game. Sure, Klebb didn’t operate in a world dominated by smartphone notifications, but all of us can learn a lesson or two in attention-building from her.

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Anna Marie Johannes in Saat Khoon Maaf

Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s novella, Susanna’s Seven Husbands, teaches our hearts to travel light, with almost no emotional baggage.

In the dark thriller, Anna Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) goes about killing her seven husbands when they don’t live up to her expectations.

Johannes has everything in abundance: caretakers, opulence and grace. The only missing piece of her life’s puzzle is a man who loves her. And so she embarks on a quest to find the love of her life. Her love is reciprocated every single time, until the wedding vows are exchanged, and then the men flounder.

But she isn’t one to stay in bad marriages because society expects her to. Her heartlessness ironically stems from the fact that she is all heart. Johannes shows us that finding love is an excruciating process, and just because you’re part of the gossip column in your neighbourhood, it doesn’t mean you should invest in a toxic relationship.

Anna puts herself first in a relationship, and her undying spirit echoes Gloria Gaynor’s sentiment, “I’ve got all my life to live, I’ve got all my love to give, I will survive.”

Watch on Netflix

DCI Roz Huntley in Line of Duty (Season 4)

A corrupt cop is an oxymoron of epic proportions, and Thandie Newton’s Roz Huntley is exactly that in the riveting British cop drama, errr… a corruption drama as fans have dubbed it on Reddit.

In the show, as Huntley’s colleague Tim Ifield (Jason Watkins) reports her for suppressing evidence and sending down innocent man Michael Farmer (Scott Reid), the cops delve deep into the case to prove whether Huntley was guilty or not.

Huntley is experienced enough to know that for a working mom, it’s not the easiest to run up the career ladder — and she will do anything to keep her life and career from unraveling.

It has been a difficult decision for her to stand up to society to join her line of work, and she will not let a small misstep cost her her dreams. Sure, she is an extremist and flouts a few rule or two, and even frames her husband as the culprit.

But her confession on the show sums up desperation pretty eloquently, “I’m not a bad person, maybe you would have done the same in my situation”.

We may not go to the extreme lengths that she embarks on, but wouldn’t we give it all to protect our dream job? It’s her resilience and sharp practical mind that we want a share of in our life to clear doubts, especially when things aren’t going our way.

Watch on Netflix

Shiv Roy in Succession

The smartest of the four Logan siblings, Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) is a monster manipulator. She is arrogant and selfish, your prime candidate to hate on the show, yet the most worthy of praises and support.

In this dysfunctional family drama, media tycoon Logan Roy is not ready to give up his chair of power to any of his successors – the four nincompoop adult children. And they won’t stop before claiming the throne.

While the three of them are ruthlessly conjuring up plans to take over as the CEO of the family business, Shiv has built a career for herself as a legal consultant outside her home turf.

She does a lot of bad things: cheats on her partner, conspires against her father and manipulates her way to the top. None of it is morally justified, but look at the bigger Logan picture, she has no other choice considering the inefficient family members she is surrounded by.

Shiv chooses to be transparent about her ambition, and given her prowess and competency, she knows she deserves it. We envy her assertiveness and confidence. On several occasions, she has shown us that it’s not always about being a team player. Sometimes, it’s important to recognise that your team is failing you, your compadres are toxic and you need to stand up and call them out, no matter how emotionally attached you are to them.

Her assertiveness will come handy even on the home front, as we take on toxic family members, who are clearly in the wrong, but love to blame things on you.

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Tara Khanna in Made in Heaven

Sobhita Dhulipala’s clinical social climber act in Made In Heaven has climbed high on the ranks of grey characters in films and shows. The Prime Video original show takes us into the world of wedding planning and uncovers the double-standards and unreasonable demands of our society while the organisers deal with problems on their personal front too.

Tara Khanna (Dhulipala) has a blinkered outlook towards life. She hates the leaky walls of her matchbox-sized apartment in the shady by-lanes of old Delhi. She hates her poverty-stricken upbringing, and wants to be rich. Soon.

When her mother advises her, “You have two things, your youth, and your good looks; make the most of it”, she considers it the gospel truth, and heads out into the big, bad world to rewrite her destiny.

She grooms herself, learns to camouflage with upper class society, lands a job as a secretary in a major business firm, and marries her boss to make a permanent place for herself on the other side of Delhi.

She is a true hustler with no shades of guilt. She doesn’t care at all about ‘log kya kahenge’, and we want that pair of deaf ears as we navigate the tough world outside. To her, the only way to get to the top is to hustle without looking back.

At no point, does she blame her roots or use her upbringing as a victim card. She changes it all. Her determination is envy-worthy.

As we set our long-term goals, all we need is a side of Tara’s determination and no-looking-back attitude to accelerate our journey.

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Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

From the outset, there’s nothing priest-like about Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor-in-chief of fictional fashion magazine Runway. The film chronicles the inner workings of a fashion magazine through the eyes of Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a fresh-out-of-college graduate who is trying to find a footing in the publishing world.

Dubbed as the Dragon Lady, men and women ‘gird their loins’ and scurry away to their designated desks as she enters the building. And she demands a private jet in the middle of a full-blown blizzard, which she dismisses as just a drizzle.

Priestly has great expectations and she won’t let anybody else take her power away.

Yes, she sabotages a friend’s promotion to retain her position in the company. Her actions may be questionable, yet put yourself in her position, and you know you’d do the same.

She is a hard task master, and knows how to set boundaries, or even build walls that keeps her ideas and plans safe in her head. A step towards self-preservation when you’re working at such a precarious position. Let’s do ourselves a favour and maintain that steely approach, spiked with sass, to set boundaries from the onset at a job.

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Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones

“Power is power”. Game of Thrones enthusiasts will make strangers watch the iconic scene from the second season between Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) and Littlefinger, to establish what a masterful negotiator she is.

A contender (in her head) in the Game of Thrones, based on George RR Martin’s political fantasy drama, Cersei is drunk on pride, power and goblets of Arbor Red. She will go to any lengths to stay the richest and the most relevant figure in Westeros. Because she strongly believes that she is the most deserving of it all.

Cersei sees things from only her point of view. “I do things because it feels good,” she asserts, in a chilling confession to Septa Unella. And while many feel that she is doing it all out of her blinding love for her offsprings, it’s only because she sees them as an extension of herself. And by that very yardstick, they, too, are perfect and all deserving.

Her self-belief is unshakeable, and we could do ourselves a grand favour if we imbibed merely 10% of that kind of conviction in life.

Watch on Disney+ Hotstar