Bollywood in the news

A million hearts broke when Shahid Kapoor’s shaadi to Delhi lass Mira Rajput was finally confirmed. While rumours of the match had been doing the rounds for a while, photos of the pretty Ms Rajput and published details of the upcoming wedding (the venue for which shifted from Greece to Gurgaon!) forced Sasha’s admirers to confront the reality that the eligible bachelor was no longer so. In July, the two tied the knot, and followed it up a couple of days later with a glitzy reception in Mumbai.

Producer Madhu Mantena exchanged vows with fashion designer Masaba Gupta, while Soha Ali Khan also tied the knot with longtime beau Kunal Khemu in January.

When Team India had an unceremonious exit from the Cricket World Cup earlier this year, the backlash against Virat Kohli’s girlfriend Anushka Sharma (who was present in the stands) was swift, and intense. Anushka was made the scapegoat for Virat’s poor showing on the pitch, and the subject of vicious accusations and cruel memes.

In films like Dil Dhadakne Do and Bajirao Mastani, PeeCee may have had to share screen space with her colleagues. But with her new show for ABC, Quantico, the spotlight was solely hers. News of the actress’ deal with a studio in the West had broken in 2014 itself, and we were among the first to report that PeeCee would be headlining a TV show in Hollywood. But then again, several B’wood actors have in the past tom-tommed their association with international projects, only to have a less-than-impressive end product or role to show for all their talk. With PeeCee however, the reverse was true. She said little, but when the trailers of Quantico were released this year, it was to an instant hailstorm of praise for her turn as FBI recruit Alex Parrish. Her show may not be on top of the numbers game, but the actress has certainly won fans abroad — an E! story referred to her as possibly “the most beautiful human being on the planet”. Take a bow, PeeCee!

The “intolerance debate” raged all over the country this year, and the Khans — Shah Rukh and Aamir — found themselves in the midst of it. In an interview, SRK said that there was a culture of “growing intolerance” in the country. Aamir, on the other hand, referred to a conversation that he had had with his wife Kiran, where she had expressed fears about where the country was heading, and that it wouldn’t be a safe place to raise their son Azad. Both Khans were severely criticised for their comments, but while Aamir reiterated his position, SRK said that his quotes had been taken out of context. The immediate effect was seen on his film Dilwale, which was “banned” by a few groups.

When Shruti Seth tweeted against what she felt was the empty tokenism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “selfie with daughter” campaign, she may not have guessed that she would be subjected to trolling of the most severe sort. Neither did Neha Dhupia, when she commented that good governance was about a lot more than “taking selfies and (making people do) yoga”. To the credit of both Shruti and Neha, they stuck to their guns: Shruti outclassed her trolls with her pithy tweets while Neha simply chose not to respond.

Fresh off her battle against a leading news daily that posted a gallery of her photos with some objectionable remarks regarding her natural assets, it seemed that Deepika Padukone could do no wrong. Later, she was as vocal about her battle with depression and her desire to do work for others suffering from it. But then came the infamous My Choice video she shot with Homi Adajania. It was meant as a declaration of women’s empowerment, but didn’t manage to convey quite that to scores of the video’s viewers. A very vociferous battle on social media commenced, with equal supporters for and against the video. Fortunately, Dippy moved on from the controversy, and soon the focus was back on her big screen projects like Tamasha and Bajirao Mastani, after Piku.

Few of Salman Khan’s movies have the kinds of twists and turns that his legal troubles in 2015 did. First, the superstar was sentenced to five years imprisonment in his 2002 hit-and-run case by a lower court. But Salman’s lawyers had already extricated him from the situation — an appeal was filed in the High Court and for the moment, the actor was a free man. Then, in a dramatic reversal of the previous judgement, the High Court acquitted Salman in the case. The star can’t breathe easy yet: The Maharastra government has stated its intention of petitioning the Supreme Court. As for Salman, he says he’s ready for the final round in this particular battle.