Mumbai - They were once a feared presence on set, keeping an eye on their daughters to protect them from roving eyes or hands.

But the days of Bollywood heroines being chaperoned by their mothers are numbered.

'Mummy-ji', as everyone from the director downwards always called them, are becoming a thing of the past, as actresses in India's popular Hindi-language film industry prefer to forge and manage their careers alone.

'I think the prime reason is that our industry has become more corporate and sleazy people have disappeared,' said actress Celina Jaitley, the daughter of an Indian army colonel, whose first break was in the 2003 hit film Janasheen.

'Heroines are more confident to decide their lives on their own, unlike in the past,' the 29-year-old former Miss India added.

Bollywood has changed almost beyond recognition in recent years, following the boom in satellite and cable television, not least in that acting is now considered a profession worthy of girls from respectable families.

Chaperoning by 'mummy-ji' persisted, however, until the 1990s, fuelling stories of interfering mothers and their sometimes impossible demands, like asking for mango juice out of season, which film crews bent over backwards to try to meet.

Now, actresses such as Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty are role models for millions of Indian women. When they are not acting or running their own production companies, they can be found launching beauty products, promoting yoga videos or investing in Indian Twenty20 cricket teams.

Actress Priyanka Kothari, whose film Agyaat (Fear) was recently released, said: 'I take my own decisions in life.

'But my parents are always there to guide me,' the 25-year-old chemistry graduate added.

Asin Thottumkal, daughter of a businessman and a medical doctor, bought her own home in India's entertainment capital Mumbai after a successful debut in Aamir Khan's hit film Ghajini late last year.

'I am loving my own space,' the 23-year-old said, but added: 'Though I have moved into my own house, my parents are just a few metres away.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.