Bollywood in 2016: A retrospect

Friday, December 23, 2016 | Swati Sharma

Another year has come and gone by. We are all a bit too familiar with this feeling of ‘but we just celebrated New Years a few months back’.

As we approach the end of 2016, we take a look at the year that was in the entertainment industry and what was the talk of the town.

Box office report

This year’s most successful film (money-wise) was undoubtedly Salman Khan’s Sultan grossing more than NZ$124 million worldwide, thus becoming the fourth highest grossing film of all time.

It was a year of biopics and films inspired by real-life incidents. Beginning from Airlift, the trend continued with Neerja, Azhar, Sarbjit, Raman Raghav 2.0, and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. All these films did well at the box office. The year’s last biopic, Dangal, starring Aamir Khan, is releasing this week. And with all the hype built around it, it is expected to shine at the box office.

Among other successful movies this year were Kapoor & Sons, Fan, Udta Punjab, Rustom, Pink and most recently released Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Dear Zindagi. Some anticipated movies from big banner that failed to impress cinema-goers were Te3n, Ki & Ka that saw a different subject line of a working woman and a homemaker husband, and sequels of past hits such as Jai Gangaajal, Housefull 3, Rock On!! 2, Tum Bin II, Force 2, Kahaani 2. Hrithik Roshan’s Mohenjo Daro, Sidharth Malhotra’s Baar Baar Dekho, Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay and Raveer Singh’s Befikre failed miserably, despite the big names associated with them.

Apart from the commercial aspect, Nil Battey Sannata and Parched garnered much attention and critical acclaim worldwide with a positive Rotten Tomatoes—the American review aggregator website for film and television—rating of 86 % and 94 % respectively.

Wedding bells

Quite a few Bollywood celebrities tied the knot this year and marked the beginning of a new life. Here’s a list of the most popular celeb wedding of 2016.

Kabir Bedi and Parveen Dusanj

Actor Kabir Bedi married his 29 years younger lady love Parveen Dosanjh on his 70^th birthday this year. This was Kabir’s fourth marriage.

Asin Thottumkal and Rahul Sharma

Actress Asin Thottumkal married Micromax CEO Rahul Sharma. Their wedding was a private affair with only close friends and family members in attendance while the grand reception in Mumbai saw the who’s who of the film industry.

Irfan Pathan and Safa Baig

Indian cricket team’s blue-eyed bowler Irfan Pathan tied the knot with a Jeddah-based model Safa Baig in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Preity Zinta and Gene Goodenough

Bubbly actress and Kings XI IPL team owner Preity Zinta got married to her long-time boyfriend, Gene Goodenough—a financial analyst—in Los Angeles.

Urmila Matondkar and Mir Mohsin Akhtar

The Rangeela girl got married to Kashmiri businessman Mir Mohsin Akhtar this year in a low-key event. Mir is 10 years younger to Urmila and has also acted in Bollywood movies such as It’s A Man’s World and Mumbai Mast Kalandar.

Ravindra Jadeja and Rivaba Solanki

The dashing Indian cricket star, popularly called Sir Ravindra Jadeja, tied the knot with Rivaba Solanki in Rajkot.

Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover

The two hotties got married in April this year and I am sure, most of you would have seen your Facebook timeline filled with picture of Bipasha and Karan’s wedding rituals almost every day. It was undoubtedly the most popular wedding of the year. The couple got married as per Bengali rituals in a family affair and hosted a grand reception that saw big faces from film, television, and fashion industry.

Divyanka Tripathi and Vivek Dahiya

Another popular wedding of the year was of TV’s top actor Divyanka and her love Vivek. They got married in July in a grand series of wedding rituals and reception. If you were active on social media at that time, there is a little chance that you would have missed the pictures of this beautiful couple.