As the year draws to a close, Rediff Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
A for AKSHAYE
At 50, Akshaye Khanna is the national crush.
From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and beyond, everyone's dancing to his Fa9la tune, imitating his recycled dance moves while the actor himself is quietly thanking God for making him finally peak as a Himalay Putra.
B for BA***DS of BOLLYWOOD
Aryan Khan made his debut, as a director, with a Netflix show spoofing the very industry where dad Shah Rukh Khan rules, even bastardiSing Hindi cinema's happily-ever-after ending to give himself one. Beta ho to aisa!
C for CHHAAVA
Vicky Kaushal entered the big league as the brave heart Sambhaji Maharaj in this historical which raked in over Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion).
D for DHURANDHAR
Aditya Dhar's josh, Akshaye Khanna's Rehman Dacait who left the fans behosh and Ranveer Singh's sarfarosh who will carry the war against terror into the new year with a sequel, have made this surgical strike a dhurandhar success, even across the border by becoming the most pirated Indian film in Pakistan.
E for EMRAAN
Raghav Juyal may have 'murdered' Kaho Na Kaho Na, but Ba***ds of Bollywood has got Hashmi a new fan following and with a blockbuster Telugu debut, OG, Hashmi is back in the race, Haq se.
F for FIFTY
In its golden jubilee year, Sholay returned to the theatres with a restored 4K cut and its uncensored ending. But the other Amitabh Bachchan classic, Deewar, was largely forgotten.
G for GARAM DHARAM
When the hero with a heart took his final curtain call, he broke hearts across the world. But with Ikkis ringing in 2026, followed by a Yamla Pagla Deewana re-run, Dharmendra will always remain pal pal dil ke paas.
H for HORRORSTRUCK
28 Years Later, Weapons, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, The Conjuring: Last Rites, K-Pop Demon Hunters, along with homebred terror tales like Thamma, Maa, Kantara Chapter 1 showed that terror is the key to the box office. Even when Ranveer Singh made a joke of the Daiva, he was ghosted till he apologised publicly.
I for INTRUDER
Nothing on screen could rival the true life drama that unfolded post-midnight when a thief sneaked into Saif Ali Khan's home and reportedly stabbed him six times before fleeing.
After the incident, the blooded actor jumped into an autorickshaw with his young son Taimur and walked into a hospital 'like a Lion', walking out alone, after a surgery to remove the broken tip of the dagger embedded in his spine.
J for JAYA HO
Amitabh Bachchan is the angry (not so) young man on screen while wife Jaya is the angry (not so) young woman off it, be it in Parliament or lashing out at paps in 'gande tight pants'.
Jaideep Ahlawat ko bhi gussa aata hai, but only when he is inPataal Lok 2 or with The Family Man 3.
K for KHANS
At 60, 'King' Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) was snarling, 'Darr nahin dehshat hoon' while Bhai Khan (Salman) was setting new workout goals with his shirtless pics and Loverboy Khan (Aamir) was unveiling Gauri Spratt as his birthday present.
L for LAW
So far, we knew where there is a will, there is a way, but industrialist Sanjay Kapur left behind a will and total disarray with third wife Priya Sachdev Kapur (and minor son Azarias) laying claims to his Rs 30,000 crore fortune while Samaira and Kiaan Raj, his children from ex-wife Karisma Kapoor, are fighting in court for their share.
M for MUM
Okay, so Katrina Kaif, Kiara Advani, Parineeti Chopra and Patralekhaa became first-time moms this year, but the duas went to Deepika Padukone who may have lost Spirit and the Kalki 2898 sequel with her demand for an eight-hour workday for female actors, as well as bagged the 'Mom of the Year' award, along with SRK's King and Pathan 2, Atlee and Allu Arjun's AA22xA6 and Ayan Mukherji's next with Ranbir Kapoor.
N for NICK
Reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, off meds and on drugs, Nick Reiner freaked out guests at a party before cutting short the lives of his parents, Oscar-winning director Rob Reiner and producer-photographer Michelle Singer, in the biggest shocker of the year.
O for ONLINE MELTDOWNS & OSCAR HOPES
In May, in a viral video, Babil Khan teared up and tore into Bollywood A-listers, calling them 'rude' and 'fu**ed up', before deleting it, issuing an official statement that he had been misinterpreted, junking the Hindi remake of the Telugu hit Baby and vanishing into the blue.
In December, Shahid Kapoor's 'baby' brother Ishaan Khattar, after a Royal(s) OTT debut, and in the company of Vishal Jethwa, powered Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound into the Oscar shortlist.
P for PAK UP
Diljit Dosanjh found himself blacklisted for an on-screen colab with Pakistani actress Hania Aamir who made anti-India statements during Operation Sindoor, his horror-comedy, Sardarji 3, banned at home and blocked on YouTube.
Q for QUEEN
Rani Mukerji won a National Film Award for Best Actress for Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway and had the Internet going awww as chalte chalte she taught King Khan how to take the perfect selfie with his citation.
R for RAJINIKANTH
The Thalaiva is 75 and shows no signs of slowing down, returning in 2026 with Jailer 2, Thalaivar 173, co-produced by Kamal Haasan (with talk of the two supremos coming together for Coolie director Lokesh Kanagaraj's next), a film with Atlee co-starring Salman Khan and a sequel to his 1999 cult classic Padayappa which has become a top grosser even on re-release.
S for SAIYAARA
Thirty years ago, we fell in love with Raj and Simran in Aditya Chopra's debut directorial, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. This year, Vaani and Krish won our hearts as they battled their demons and fading memory in another Yash Raj production, Saiyaara, making it a dream debut for the lead pair, Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday.
T for TOO MUCH
Twinkle Khanna and Kajol took the title literally and faced intense backlash for comments like 'marriage comes with an expiry date' and 'physical infidelity is not a deal breaker'.
Eventually, they had to add a bonus episode with the disclaimer 'nothing we say in this segment should be taken lightly'.
Loose talk also landed YouTuber, Ranveer Allahbadia and India's Got Latent into big trouble and it took more than just BeerBiceps to untangle himself.
U for URVASHI
Just when you thought Urvashi Rautela couldn't do any more wrong, the actress who was already drawing flak for her cringe moves with double-her-age Nandamuri Balkrishna in the Dabidi Dabidi song, left everyone momentarily dumbstruck (before the trolls tore into her) by saying that the attack on Saif Ali Khan had left her feeling so unsafe that she couldn't flaunt the watches her parents had gifted her in the wake of Daaku Maharaaj hitting a century at the box office.
V for VE THE PEOPLE
Vikrant Massey's prize moments at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Anuparna Roy making sweet music with Songs of Forgotten Trees at the Venice Film Fest and Vidya Balan's transformation through an anti-inflammation diet, are Vin-some memories, but for Vikram Bhatt and wife, who were arrested on charges of fraud and sent to jail, it's a nightmarish end to the year.
W for WEDDINGS
After her divorce with Naga Chaitanya came through, Samantha told a fan that marrying again 'would be a bad investment according to the statistics'. But on December 1, she tied the knot with The amily Man and Citadel CoDirector Raj Nidimoru at Coimbatore's Isha Foundation.
Meanwhile what was to be the Shaadi of the Year was called off just hours before dilwale composer Palash Muchhal arrived for his dulhania, but no worries, Smriti Mandana already has a perfect match in cricket.
X for X-FILES
Jab Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan met at the IIFA press conference in Jaipur, and instead of the usual ignore, hugged, smiled and chatted, everyone expected Aditya and Geet to reunite, both on screen and off it. But the exes returned, alag alag, to their real-life partners and children.
Y for YOUTUBE
It's the next big thing or rather already a big thing with AK making his latest production, Sitaare Zameen Par, available on his channel, Aamir Khan Talkies, on a pay-per-view basis. From 2029 till 2033, even the Oscars will move off traditional broadcast television, ABC network, and onto YouTube.
Z for ZORA
In a year when the animated Zootopia 2 (along with Mahavatar Narsimha back home) created a box office tsumani, Rajiv Rai returned after 21 years with a film he had written, produced, directed and edited, but sadly, it was no Tridev, Mohra or Gupt and made us wish that Zora had remained masked, but the franchise continues with Zora Zorawar. Zzzzzz...
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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