Successful but controversial year for Bollywood

The year 2015 was a successful but controversial year for Bollywood. Big-budget films like Salman Khan’s “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” and “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo”, Ranveer Singh-Priyanka Chopra-Deepika Padukone’s “Bajirao Mastani”, Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer “Dilwale” and the historical fiction “Baahubali” proved to be big grossers.

Besides, Akshay Kumar’s “Baby”, Ajay Devgn starrer “Drishyam” and Amitabh Bachchan-Deepika Padukone’s family film “Piku” and Varun Dhawan’s “Badlapur” were also hit.

Controversies
On the controversy side, the year saw the sentencing of Salman in a 13-year-old alleged drunken-driving hit-and-run case to five years jail and the subsequent acquittal by the Bombay High Court–bringing relief to the Hindi cinema fraternity.

Sooraj, the Son of couple Aditya Pancholi and Zairna Wahab, was charge-sheeted in the case involving suicide of model-actress Jiah Khan two years ago. Incidentally, he was launched this year by Salman Khan and was paired with Suniel Shetty’s daughter Athiya in “Hero”.

The three Khans—Salman Khan, Shah Rukh and Aamir also saw their posters being burnt and facing flak on social media for their comments.

For Salman, it was his tweet ahead of the hanging of Yakub Memon, the convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case,saying: “One innocent man killed is killing the humanity...Get Tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother…” was criticised. He later retracted his tweet.

Shah Rukh Khan’s remarks on intolerance sparked off another controversy. “There is intolerance, there is extreme intolerance… there is, I think… there is growing intolerance.

It is stupid… It is stupid to be intolerant and this is our biggest issue, not just an issue… Religious intolerance or intolerance of any kind, is the worst thing and will take us to the dark ages,” this remark by Khan saw him winning quite a few enemies.

The other Khan, Aamir, also faced flak by remarking: “....Kiran (his wife) and I have lived all our life in India. For the first time, she said should we move out of India…She fears for her child, she fears about what the atmosphere around us will be....”. The statement had enough in it to invite trouble.

Individual feats
The year 2015 saw veteran actors Shashi Kapoor conferred the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award and Dilip Kumar honoured with the Padma Vibhushan.

The ailing actors could not go to New Delhi to receive the awards and it was central ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh who reached out to them, respectively.

Deaths
The year also saw the death of yesteryear’s actor Sadhana (74) who was known for her famous “Sadhana-cut” hairstyle.  Music composer Aadesh Shrivastava, 49, too lost his battle to cancer this year.

FTII crisis
A big issue that rocked the film fraternity this year was the protest over the appointment of BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The 139-day strike and boycott held by the students left an impact on the Bollywood with a number of actors expressing in support of the students.

The students ultimately joined the classes but the agitation continues—even as they had petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the rigid stand of the government.

The film fraternity also met Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore vis-à-vis the guidelines and ban on use of cuss words by Pahlaj Nihalani, the chairman of Central Board of Film Certification. However, the government refrained from sacking him.

Sanjay Dutt out of jail next year
Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is expected to be out of Pune’s Arthur Road jail by February-March next year. He is undergoing a five-year jail term for illegally possessing an AK-47 assault rifle that was part of the consignment that had landed ahead of the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

No release for Aamir, Hritik
Top actors–Aamir Khan and Hritik Roshan–who are known for big-budget superhit films, did not had a single release in 2015. Actor Parineeti Chopra also did not have any release this year. Aamir and Hritik are currently working for their big releases of 2016.

While the former is in news for Ashutosh Gowariker's upcoming film “Mohenjo Daro”, Aamir’s “Dangal” has kept his supporters waiting.