As a Kriti Sanon fan, I would like to start a petition: please, let her play a woman who isn’t defined by how desirable, damaged or difficult she is.
This is not an argument against flawed female characters. In fact, Hindi cinema needs more women who are messy, selfish, ambitious, morally complicated, and capable of making terrible decisions. But there is a difference between writing a flawed woman and repeatedly writing a woman whose flaws become her entire personality.
And that difference is becoming increasingly important when it comes to Kriti Sanon.
Sanon has always stood out to me because she experiments. Her filmography has never followed a predictable trajectory. She moved from the commercial glamour of Heropanti (2014) to the small-town ambition of Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017). She played a surrogate in Mimi (2021), a character that won her the National Film Award. Then there was Hum Do Hamare Do (2021) and Bhediya (2022), where she plays a werewolf.
But her recent trajectory feels boring. Directors have managed to put even her in a template: the hot, complicated, emotionally bruised woman who makes questionable choices.
Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing such women. The problem is when the character begins and ends there.
Flawed need not be boring
In Do Patti (2024), Sanon played a dual role, which on paper is exactly the kind of opportunity an actor should relish. The film gave her the chance to create two distinct personalities and explore the psychological differences between them. There was ambition in the casting. But the characters were also heavily tethered to trauma, violence, obsession, and romantic dysfunction. Then came Tere Ishk Mein (2025), where Sanon once again found herself in emotionally volatile territory.
I do agree that Hindi cinema has in the past shown little patience for female characters who are allowed to be difficult. But being flawed doesn’t mean these characters were well-written.
A woman can be toxic, impulsive, selfish or destructive and still have a great character arc.
Think of Tabu in Haider (2014), where Ghazala is manipulative, maternal, political, sensual, and deeply conflicted. Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab (2016). Her character’s journey is driven by desperation and survival. Vidya Balan in Ishqiya (2010) is one of my favourites. Krishna is manipulative and unapologetically sexual, but her motivations, agency, and contradictions make her fascinating.
A flawed woman needs somewhere to go. Completing the hattrick for Sanon was Cocktail 2 (2026).
The first Cocktail gave us a female character in Veronica who was glamorous, sexually liberated, emotionally messy, and, importantly, not interested in making herself palatable. Deepika Padukone’s performance worked because Veronica’s flaws were not simply there to make her desirable or tragic. She had a personality that filled the screen. She could be hilarious one moment and deeply destructive the next.
If Sanon is stepping into that universe, the question shouldn’t simply be whether she can pull off another glamorous, complicated woman. We already know she can.
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Time for experimentation
The more interesting question is: what does she bring to the archetype that we haven’t seen before? Because I know for a fact she is capable of so much more.
She looked damn gorgeous in the film, no surprises there, but her character had no arc. In the end, it’s the man who emerges as the saviour and saint.
Also, Sanon has reached a point in her career where she doesn’t need to prove that she can play the glamorous, emotionally complicated woman. We know she can do it. Now, give her something else.
Give her a character that surprises even her audience, her fans. Give her comedy that isn’t built around romance. Give her a villain. Give her an absurd character. Give her a deeply ordinary woman with an extraordinary interior life. Give her something different and exciting.
Because Sanon’s greatest advantage has always been her willingness to experiment.
So yes, consider this my unofficial petition: stop stereotyping Sanon, I can’t take one more glamorous flawed woman with no character arcs.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)