The year saw some standout performances from lesser known actors.
Bhar Do Jholi Meri is Salman's favourite song. Here's looking at other smashing qawwalis through time.
'I wasn't initially convinced about Finding Fanny. I didn't know what the hell Homi (Adajania, director) had written.' Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah gets candid.
'The answer is no, the entire country's is.' 'So why such obsession with Delhi?' 'But the most powerful people in India live here: The prime minister, civil servants, Supreme Court judges, MPs, diplomats, dadas of the media...' 'If they can't deal with their own problem, what chance does the rest of the country have, with its foul air, dying rivers, frothing lakes, and crumbling mountains?' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Sridevi was a responsible mother.' 'I have heard her talking about her daughters.' 'Once in a while, they came on set. She would make sure she had time for them.' 'That's why she could play a mother so wonderfully in English Vinglish.'
There is nothing the young Purvanchali wants more desperately than to escape to a place with less hopelessness, and some opportunity, discovers Shekhar Gupta.
Udta Punjab truly soars when being its own madcap beast, profane and powerful and preening.
'It's like a railway compartment which is really crowded and you have to make your own space, work harder for that seat.' Divya Dutta makes her presence felt.
'Our story was really made after we saw what was happening in Punjab.' 'Earlier it was 'drug film, cool thriller, hipster movie.' Then we went to Punjab and we said, "Boss!"'
Hindi cinema seems readier than society to focus on women. It is not just rape one is talking about, though an act of rape and its consequent injustice unfolds most narratives. Suddenly women are central not just as problematic but as possibility, as agency, as alternative, feels Shiv Visvanathan.
'Even though Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyon was not a hit, people still remember me. I must have done some really good acting in it. I met Akshay (Kumar, her co-star) recently and he told me 'tu toh director ban gayi hai' (you've become a director). I told him you can never predict where life takes you.' Divya Khosla Kumar prepares us for Sanam Re.
Vidya Balan *really* wants her new film Hamari Adhuri Kahani to do well.
'I miss Tabu's beauty, her graceful presence, her delicate smile and the texture of her voice, with which she can convey so many things -- the lonely mother, the lover, the seductress, the wronged woman, or a young woman charmed by an older man,' says Aseem Chhabra.
'The starting point of the Udta Punjab casting was that we didn't think stars would do a film like this, so we'd take non-stars. As the names kept rolling in and we had Kareena Kapoor and Shahid and Alia Bhatt, I was like yaar yeh ho kya raha hai?'
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