Two of this week's movie releases—Alpha and Baby Do Die Do—have women in action roles, which is now happening more frequently, if not on the big screen, then on OTT (see Priyanka Chopra in Citadel). Still, when a project has women doing stunts, it is hailed as something out of the ordinary, or even revolutionary.

We forget that Fearless Nadia was doing fight scenes without the help of special effects 90 years ago. If that is too far back in time, then the OG action TV series, Charlie's Angels, turns 50 this year. The show, with its glamorous female secret agents, was such a novelty that it launched a franchise (Bollywood did a copycat film version called Ashanti in 1982) and its own universe of merchandise, board games, beauty products, comics and film reboots. In February 2026, it was announced that a new project was in the works—and it is rare that the influence of a TV show lasts for half a century!

A Groundbreaking Television Phenomenon

The series followed the adventures of the Angels, a team of women working for the Townsend Agency, a private agency, under the leadership of the unseen Charlie Townsend. At a time when prime-time television was dominated by male-led police procedurals like Kojak, Starsky & Hutch and The Rockford Files, Charlie's Angels offered a radical change. It ruled the ratings over its five seasons, and its pop-cultural echoes endured due to its creation of a template for female-led action that persists to this day.

While male crime fighters were all rough and gruff (with the........

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