2006 - A scandalous Bollywood year

By Subhash K. Jha Jan 7, 2007, 9:09 GMT

Mumbai, Jan 7 (IANS) There were scandals and controversies galore in 2006 - whether it was Raveena Tandon's face-off with her husband's ex-wife, Udit Narayan's tale of two wives, Katrina Kaif going to a dargah in a skirt or Salman Khan landing in jail yet again!

Raveena: There were tales of Raveena pouring a drink onto her husband's ex-wife face at a party hosted by Farhan Akhtar's friend. Raveena didn't deny the incident.

Gandhi: Films on Gandhi women fail to take off. When producer Murli Manohar announced a bio-pic on Congress president Sonia Gandhi's life, doubts were raised about the film's veracity. To make a film on Sonia with pin-up girl Monica Belluci in the lead seemed as far fetched as N. Chandra's plans to make a film on former prime minister Indira Gandhi with Manisha Koirala in the lead. Both plans bombed.

Udit: Singer Udit Narayan said he had only one wife. His first wife Ranjana said he had two. Maybe Udit didn't know how to count. Or maybe he didn't believe bigamy was a big deal. The Bihar Women's Commission forced the popular singer to accept the first wife. Last heard, Udit was still in a denial mode.

Ash: One thing must be said about the 'fan' from South Africa who sent Aishwarya Rai a small fortune in an envelope. He was no fan. Look at the trouble he put the beautiful actress in. Ash even had to fly down from Jaipur where she was shooting for 'Jodha-Akbar'. From riding horses to battling controversies Ash did it all with dignity.

Aamir: The minute Aamir Khan spoke up for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a political party 'banned' him and his film 'Fanaa' from Gujarat. Yashraj Films wondered if casting another Khan besides Shah Rukh was such a good idea after all.

Katrina: Bare legs at a dargah ... not done! Religious protesters wanted Katrina to... it isn't clear what they really wanted her to do!! Cover her legs or cover her. Maybe just free tickets for Vipul Shah's 'Namaste London'.

Salman: Can any year be complete without Salman's scandalous doings? The black buck case cropped up again. This year Salman went back to jail, albeit for just a few days... then the bail. Salman also lost his hair. All this added up to exorbitant delays in the completion of 'Jaan-e-Mann', 'Baabul' and 'God, Tussi Great Ho'.

Salman-John: Filmy friendships couldn't get flimsier. While John kept mum, Salman made snide remarks about John at any given opportunity. So what happened between them during their Rock Stars concert?

Bipasha: Something happened during her ride to New Jersey for the Independence Day celebrations. The guys who drove her down made indecent comments and Basu refused to keep mum. They don't make Bengali actresses temperamental for nothing.

Manisha: A careless reporter made a hash of things by writing that Manisha had a canine named after a religious prophet. Protests were held, effigies burnt, and the actress was all but driven out of the city. It then turned out that she had no pets!

'Sholay': All hell broke loose when Ram Gopal Varma announced his decision to do a new version of 'Sholay'. The producers of the original 'Sholay' got cracking. Somewhere you feel Ramu enjoys all the attention. But the constant back-and-forth on the film's cast and intentions made it the most talked-about remake of the year.

Kim-Shamita: Did actors Shamita Shetty and Kim Sharma really fight over cricketer Yuvraj Singh? It really didn't matter because before the year-end Yuvraj was himself fighting with others on his birthday. That's why they call it a bash!

Kangana: Kangana Ranaut's sister was acid-attacked in Dehradun. Who was the goon who wanted to harm the poor girl? 'Why am I always in the news?' moaned Kangana. It's called success, my dear. Get used to it.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service