As the world gears up to celebrate International Women's Day March 8, there are reasons for women in Bollywood to cheer.

A handful of ladies-turned-producers and female filmmakers have contributed considerably to changing the silver screen portrayal of women from the all-sacrificing mothers and wives to the exceptionally well-crafted characters.

This has been made possible because of female filmmakers bringing in their distinctive style to an industry dominated by male directors and leading ladies plunging into direction, production and heading industry associations.

Actresses who have reached the stage where they are fed up of playing bimbettes or have been displaced by anorexic young beings are playing a key role in the transformation of the screen image of women in India.

Ten of the beautiful women who have ruled Bollywood over the last 50 years will be recognised by a popular music channel in a programme hosted by ace director Karan Johar to be aired March 8.

For the most part of the last three years, Bollywood has been churning out films that were virtual skin shows - just a few films had strong women characters and a relatively better understanding of female sexuality.

While the spurt in small-budget films helped strong and articulate women come alive onscreen in movies like "Main Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hoon", "Samay", "Pinjar", "Tehzeeb", "Anaahat" and "Chokher Bali" in 2004, last year witnessed release of films like "Black", "Paheli", "Page 3" and "Water". Women directors were seen and heard more often.

After a long gap, viewers are feasting on films that have handled women characters sensitively and boldly.

It is about time that Bollywood pays due respect to its leading ladies, else a beauty drain after brain drain is next on the cards. A slew of female actors are featuring on international projects.

Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and Sonali Kulkarni lead the list of actors with international projects under their belt. Shilpa Shetty and Mahima Chaudhury are hot contenders for "Babel" starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

According to reports, Sameera Reddy has been offered a role in Sarah Gavron's adaptation of Monica Ali's best selling novel, "Brick Lane".

Bengali actor Nandana Sen is in Willard Carrol's musical romance "Marigold", which stars Salman Khan, as well as in Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad's crossover film "It's A Mismatch".

"It used to be an industry where actresses were considered props - maybe a vase on the sideboard. Now at last, the vase has reached the centre table," Sushmita Sen says.

The films have, however, not been too successful in transforming the original screen-image of the perfect woman - of being the ever-sacrificing, helpless female who has no aspirations and finds fulfilment only in serving her husband and children.

The Indian marquees are flush with girls with small roles and equally small clothes. Girls, who in real life are career-minded, are seen in bimbette parts in Priyadarshan's "Garam Masala" and David Dhawan's "Shaadi No.1".

In fact, some of the commercial hits in the last few years show a decided nostalgia for a traditional way of life where women are the homemakers, says writer S. Raza.

In "Main Hoon Na", the woman must don traditional clothes to get her man and a teenybopper in "Ishq Vishk" fasts on 'karva chauth' (a fast observed by married women for their husband's longevity) to entice her boyfriend from the career-oriented independent 'other woman'. The "masala" films ignore the reality that 26 percent women in urban and rural India work (2001 census).

Films today are increasingly depicting heroines as homemakers, albeit educated ones, according to Raza. Clearly, Bollywood film writers need to work harder at catching up with the Indian woman who has progressed much.

Although box-office failures of films where the leading protagonist is a woman are cited as excuses to declare that women-oriented films always turn out to be duds, the same talk is unlikely to be heard if an "A"-list actor's film flops.

Clearly, Bollywood only talks about women-oriented films that flop and conveniently glosses over the huge number of hero-centric ones that fail.

There are lots of women making a name for themselves in the world of documentaries where budgets are bottom-of-the-barrel low.

Deepa Mehta's critically acclaimed Indo-Canadian period drama "Water" has defied many odds on the way to winning the coveted Golden Kinnaree awards for best picture at the 4th Bangkok International Film Festival.

Reports say that "Water", starring Lisa Ray, John Abraham and Seema Biswas, faced competition from local favourite, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves", besides the Oscar-nominated Duncan Tucker film "Transamerica", Stephen Frears' "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and cult South Korean director Chan-Wook Park's "Sympathy For Lady Vengeance".

The film captures the plight of widows in India in the 1930s who were compelled by outmoded social traditions to lead a life of privation, servility and exploitation.

Farah Khan is perhaps the most commercially successful and she did it by churning out an out-and-out masala flick, "Main Hoon Na".

Others like Aparna Sen, Reema Rakeshnath, Shrabani Deodhar, Tanuja Chandra, Pooja Bhatt, Suhasini Mani Ratnam and Suma Josson have stuck to telling stories of contemporary India and sexual liberation.

Women directors like Sai Paranjpye, Aruna Raje and Kalpana Lajmi and new entrants Meghna Gulzar and Revathy have not been able to make audience-pleasing films.

The good thing though is that with the exponential increase in the demand for more films due to the multiplex phenomenon, more and more women directors are finding funding for making movies close to their hearts.

With more and more clean money and corporate finances flowing in, there is hope for women to say: "Bollywood is no more a man's world!"

Leading actors like Aishwarya Rai, Urmila Matondkar and Sushmita Sen seem keen on winning the national award rather than simply raking in the moolah.