Bollywood actresses Prefering action-oriented roles.

Deepika told IANS that"The trend of more heroines taking up action roles itself shows that with the evolution of the Hindi film industry, women are getting to do more in films than just dance around trees,"

Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif or Koena Mitra, heroines are no longer content with just dancing around trees or singing in the rain. Instead, they are in a bid to compete with action heroes.

Said actor Ajay Devgan: "Heroines are as strong as heroes. Deepika is all set to give a heady rush of adrenaline to audiences with action scenes in Nikhil Advani's "Chandni Chowk To China" opposite Akshay Kumar.

Viewers will also soon see Priyanka Chopra doing heavy-duty action in "Love Story 2050", Aishwarya swinging the sword in the historical epic "Jodhaa-Akbar" . Koena playing a superwoman in "Karna".

Sushmita Sen gave an action packed performance in "Samay" and Esha Deol's and Aishwarya's racy acts proved a crowd puller for "Dhoom" and "Dhoom 2" respectively.

Also, Priyanka and Soha Ali Khan had action scenes in "Krrish" and "Khoya Khoya Chand" respectively, while Esha, Dia Mirza and Shamita Shetty did some stunts in "Cash".

Commenting on the trend, Amrita Rao said: "I would love to do an action flick. In fact I find myself fortunate that I entered the film industry during a phase when actresses are doing so much and have longer terms.

However, in the 1930s and 40s, Bollywood heroines did have important roles in action films. Indian cinema at that time saw Mary Evans, fondly called Fearless Nadia, tossing the myth of the docile heroine into air.

Riding a horse with a whip in hand, fencing with villains atop running trains, swinging from chandeliers and doing stunts without resorting to stuntmen, Nadia's films "Hunterwali", "Pahadi Kanya", "Miss Frontier Mail", "Lutaru Lalna", "Punjab Mail", "Diamond Queen", "Bombaiwali, Jungle Princess" and "Hunterwali ki Beti" ran houseful.

Director and actor Rajat Kapoor said: "It is nothing new. After every 20 years, trends comes back. According to me, today the trend of actresses doing more action in films is more related to fitness.

"It is no doubt great but as far as the ornamental role of women is concerned I feel no progress is happening".