It’s a rare event when a Bollywood movie makes mainstream news stateside and, thanks to good ol’ gender politics, near impossible for a female director to achieve. Enter Farah Khan, whose critically panned Happy New Year is shaking things up around the BW movie scene.

But let’s review the facts, shall we? Happy New Year is a heist movie, with enough plot twists and car chases to make your head spin for days (well, a couple hours at least) and, bonus, it doubles as a rousing musical. Basically, everything that you could possibly want from a movie, this one has. Based on first-day sales, the movie is on track to become the biggest blockbuster to come out of the Bollywood.

But what should really get the feminist in each of us going: Farah Khan crushed all kinds of minimal expectations to make this happen.

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"Nobody is expecting a 200 crore ($33 million)(£20.85 million) hit from a woman director, which in itself is very sad and very patronising," Khan told Reuters about her stellar achievement.  The movie isn’t exactly a hit with the critics, but the director has obviously struck a chord with her audience.

"I hope more women come and break this record. I think it will help every woman who wants to go out and make a movie, if our movies end up making as much money as the male directors."