Bollywood’s biggest controversies of 2018

Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba, Anu Malik, Subhash Ghai and Sajid Khan among others were also accused of sexual misconduct.

Padmaavat

Pictures from the sets of Padmaavat after it was vandalised in December 2017.

The trouble which began at the end of 2017, spilled over to 2018 too. Several Rajput groups including Karni Sena protested, vandalised the film sets, and even issued threats to Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone, claiming that Padmaavat portrays Rajput queen Padmavati in a bad light. While several states banned the film, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition against its release.

Its scheduled theatrical release on December 1, 2017 as ‘Padmavati’ got postponed in India. It finally arrived on January 25, 2018, with a changed title – ‘Padmaavat’, multiple disclaimers and a midriff covered Deepika in the “Ghoomar” song. The movie eventually broke several box office records.

Sidharth Malhotra – Bhojpuri trouble

Neetu Chandra had slammed Sidharth Malhotra for insulting Bhojpuri language.

Sidharth Malhotra faced trouble during the promotions of his film Aiyaary on Bigg Boss 11. While playing a game where they had to speak in Bhojpuri, Sid ended up saying that he is getting a “latrine-kind” of feeling. Actor Neetu Chandra, whose mother tongue is Bhojpuri, slammed Sidharth on Twitter for insulting the language. She wrote, “So disappointed @S1dharthM some1who is so fortunate 2 work wd d best. Who despite being an outsider has made a name 4 himself,4 U 2 use ur words so loosely.2 disrespect #Bhojpuri on national TV. SHOCKED! How on earth does speaking in #Bhojpuri gives u a latrine feeling. Shame on U.”

After a lot of trolling and fan fury, Sidharth issued an apology on the micro-blogging site, He tweeted, “‘I recently tried speaking a new language while I was on a TV show. In the process, if I inadvertently hurt anyone’s feelings or sentiments, I apologise and assure you that no disrespect was meant in any way.”

Swara Bhasker – Veere Di Wedding

Swara Bhasker played a woman undergoing a divorce in Veere Di Wedding.

The actor, known for her strong characters, had a brush with trouble over a masturbation scene in Veere Di Wedding. While Swara received a lot of backlash on social media, the actor shared that she expected to get trolled. Swara took on all the negativity like a boss.

Manmarziyaan

Abhishek Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu in a still from Manmarziyaan.

The film opened to a decent response at the theaters. And just when Taapsee Pannu’s Rumi was getting a lot of audience love, a Sikh group expressed concern over showing Taapsee and Abhishek Bachchan’s characters smoking, and Abhishek even taking off his turban in an objectionable manner in the film. After a lot of hatred on social media, director Anurag Kashyap issued an apology to the Sikh community. The makers, however, deleted the scenes in question, much to the unhappiness of Kashyap.

PadMan – Plagiarism charges

PadMan actor Akshay Kumar, producer Twinkle Khanna along with Arunachalam Muruganantham.

Days after its release, the Akshay Kumar film was caught in a plagiarism row. Ripu Daman Jaiswal took to social media and shared that he had written the script for PadMan even before Twinkle Khanna announced the film. Ripu said that he had sent the synopsis of the film to Dharma Productions’ creative head and also to Vikramaditya Motwane. Ripu tweeted about how some scenes have been taken from his script.

PadMan is based on Twinkle Khanna’s short story in her book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, which is inspired by the life of social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, who introduced low-cost sanitary pads.

Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi

Sonu Sood had made a shocking exit from Kangana Ranaut starrer Manikarnika recently.

The Kangana Ranaut film has remained in news ever since it went on floors. It started when a clapboard from the film’s sets began doing the rounds with Kangana’s name written as the director. This, when Krish Jagarlamudi was directing the film. Kangana’s team soon issued a clarification that the actor was only shooting some patchwork and extra scenes in Krish’s absence and he was indeed still the director.

Later, actor Sonu Sood made a shocking exit from the film and asked Kangana to “stop playing the victim card”. As per reports, major portions of the film had to be reshot.