Nagpur: 2015 has been a mixed year for the film industry. It started with Tevar and Alone taking a dip at the box office. Thanks to a handful of movies like ABCD2, Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Bahubali, Bajrangi Bhaijaan & Bajirao Mastani that bought smiles on faces of Producers, Distributors, Cinema Owners and of course the audience!
On the other hand, films like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Shaandar, Roy, Phantom, Dil Dhadakne Do, Bombay Velvet, Katti Batti, Singh Is Bliing were a letdown as far as their entertainment quotient is concerned (though some of them made money too).
As regards with the debuts of 2015, future of Bollywood surely looks brilliant! There were many award winning debut releases like Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, Avinash Arun’s Killa, M. Manikandan’s Kaaka Muttai, Kanu Behl’s Titli, Raam Reddy’s Thithi, Ruchika Oberoi’s Island City, Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Asha Jaoar Majhe, Bhaurao Karhade’s Khwada which made sure that level of Indian cinema is touching new heights with time.
Women too undoubtedly ruled and made their presence felt in 2015! Who can ignore Kangana Ranaut’s quickest Rs. 100 crore earning woman-oriented film Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Deepika Padukone’s fantastic work in Piku, Tamasha and Bajirao Mastani which was the favourite of critics and did wonders at the Box Office too!
Happy moments for the Khan fans this year were many! Not to forget both the Khans celebrating their 50th birthdays this year and return gifting their fans with tweet quotes and dedicated web pages! Another one for fans to cherish was the exoneration of Bhaijaan from Hit and Run case, which of course saddened a huge chunk of population of our country.
This year had its own share of controversies too. Be it Pahilaj Nihalani’s storm that embarrassed quite a lot of us or the National Anthem issue at PVR Kurla or the much talked about Intolerance remarks by SRK & Aamir Khan. All of these kept the social media at work for and against them all.
We witnessed plenty of our favourite film stars tying the nuptial knot in 2015. Heartthrob Shahid Kapoor finally tied the knot with his Delhi-based fiancée Mira Rajput… Nawabi princess Soha Ali Khan hitched up with her beau Kunal Khemu… Minissha Lamba married her long-time boyfriend Ryan Tham in a secret ceremony… Nigaar Khan married her long time beau Khayyam… Daughter of late Gulshan Kumar, Tulsi Kumar married a Jaipur-based businessman Hitesh Ralhan… Kunal Kapoor tied the knot with Amitabh Bachchan’s niece Naina Bachchan… Gorgeous lady with beautiful voice Shreya Ghoshal married her long-time beau Shiladitya Mukhopadhyaya… Dabangg girl, Sonakshi Sinha’s brother Kussh Sinha wed his girlfriend, Taruna Agarwal… Loads of wishes and blessings to all of them!
All set for 2016! With films like Airlift, Neerja, Fan, Rangoon, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Shivaay, Mohenjo Daro, Mirzya, Sultan, Raees, Dangal lets hope the cash registers keep ringing at ticket window for each one connected with the trade and of course some good entertainment pouring in all year long for the audience too!
Author Manohar Wadhwani is owner of a Film Distribution company & has released almost a century of mainstream Bollywood & Hollywood Films.
