From Padmavati to Prerna Arora 5 Newsmakers Of Bollywood In 2017

 2017 was the year when the  ‘P’ squad dominated news channels : Padmavati , Pahlaj and Prerna Arora. Here’s looking at  the  top newsmakers  of the entertainment business in 2017.

1.     Padmavati: More newsprint and media space went into discussions debates  and diatribes on  this one  film than any other in  the history  of  Indian cinema. As  a producer with a penchant  for being in  the news said to me, ‘Agar ek film ko protest se itni publicity mil sakti hai toh phir paise laganee kikya zaroorat hai? Dimaag lagao aur publicity luto(if a film can get so much publicity through protests why spend money?  Use  your barins and enjoy the  publicity).’This  producer  of course thinks he has got the film’s maketing arithmetic right. But the flak and abuse including charges of sedition anddesh droh have been hard to deal with. The  film’s director Sanjay Leela Bhansali has sworn off historicals.

2.  Pahlaj Nihalani:  Breathe  in breathe  out…The  former chairperson  of  the CBFC continued to make  news for a large part of the year. Whether  it was  his run-in with the  makers  of Lipstick Under The Burkha or Babumoshai Bandookbaaz the  man grabbed  headlines , attracted  trolls and managed to give many inconspicuous films  a run for their money and some  money for their run(at the  boxoffice).In August Nihalani was sacked by the new I & B minister Smriti Irani. Even now when he is no more the  CBFC chairperson Nihalani makes more news than the current  CBFC chairperson PrasoonJoshi.

3.  Taimur Ali Khan: Errrrrrr… the youngest superstar  of India? At 1, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor’s  son is  a  bigger star than his parents. He is clicked and splashed in all the papers and  websites more regularly than his star-parents and  is way ahead of  the other star-kids of Bollywood in the social media. Yup, even Shah Rukh’s Abram. Throughout the year Taimur occupied media space more so than even Anushka  Sharma and Virat Sharmadid during the year…until his first  birthday when the adorable moppet’s first birthday was overshadowed by the Anushka–Virat wedding.Awwwwww!

4.  Prernaa Arora: Easily the most rapidly-rising independent film producer, Prernaa Arora’s success has been swift and surefooted. She began her career as  an independent producer in  2016 with the successful  Rustom , the film that won Akshay Kumar his first National award. In 2017 she co-produced  Toilet Ek Prem Katha, another  game-changer .By the  end of  2017 Ms Arora was  associated with a truckload  of topnotch productions  including the on-release Padman, Parmanu The Story Of Pokhram(said to be John Abraham’s  career-defining  film)  and the Anushka Sharma–helmed Pari…Undoubtedly Prernaa Arora is the most successful independent  producer in Bollywood since Sajid Nadiadwala. And yes her career is dominated by  the ‘P’ factor(please note the titles  of her forthcoming films).

5.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui:  A premature memoir where he spoke less than graciously about the women  in  his life , put  Nawazuddin in the dock. The  actor was mercilessly flailed for his tactless cheesy attitude to women. Through  a major  part of  the  year  Nawaz  was  more in the news for his book than his performances.At year-end came some relief from the sordid controversy when  Nawazuddin was not dropped from the Bal Thackeray bio-pic.Jaan bachi too croreon paye.