BOLLYWOODSuperstars rule

AAMIR KHAN: For the past couple of years, Aamir Khanhad left a sharp impression in the hearts of his followers withhis December releases. But this time, with no films to be released,Aamir Khan made to the headlines for some wrong reasons. Con-troversy hit Mr. Perfectionist hard as his remarks on the issueof 'intolerance' did not go down well with many people. Trigger-ing a controversy, Aamir said that he and his wife Kiran Raoconsidered leaving India owing to the 'disquiet' surrounding it.He said they deemed the present situation of the country to betoo dangerous for their kids. The controversy left Bollywooddivided with many hitting out at the actor for his remarks. How-ever, away from controversy, Aamir was busy shooting for hisnext year release ' Dangal'. He is seen is a completely transformedlook from his previous film 'PK'. He has put on a lot of weightto get into the character of a wrestler, as Dangal is loosely basedon the life a wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat.

AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN: Last seen in Guzaar-ish, Ash was back after a long gap of five years in 'Jazbaa'. WithIrrfan Khan sharing the screen space with one time Bollywoodqueen, the film promised a lot for its fans. However, putting upan average display at the Box Office, 'Jazbaa' will not surely countat the top of Ash's list of famous movies which also includenumerous international productions.ANUSHKA SHARMA: Anushka had a rather mixed year asfar as her success at the Box Office is concerned. While she wasat the top of the world last year with 'PK' hitting the right chordof success, 2015 commenced on a silimar note with Anushkadelivering another brilliant performance in the thrilling tale'NH10'. She also turned a producer with the road drama. Anush-ka also starred in multi-starrer 'Bombay Velvet' that was appre-ciated by her fans but the much-talked about 'Bombay Velvet'which also saw the acting debut of filmmaker Karan Johar madea poor run at the Box Office. Anushka's personal life tooremained on the top of headlines as she found herself in anunwanted controversy when she was blamed by several disap-pointed Indians for the loss of India in the World Cup semi-finalsclash against Australia this year. Anushka's presence in the sta-dium was blamed for her boy friend and Test team skipper ViratKohli's poor show in the match.ALIA BHATT: She has been the talk of the tinsel town sinceher debut in 'Student of the Year'. In 2015, she was seen once onthe silver screen opposite Shahid Kapoor in 'Shaandaar'. Thefilm did not make a significant performance on the silver screenbut chemistry between Shahid and Alia was something new tocherish for movie goers. Alia, however, had a terrible end to theyear as she suffered minor burns during an award function inDecember. Alia took on Twitter to thank her fans for showingtheir concerns and assured them that her cute face was 'fine'. AJAY DEVGN: He was back in his serious avatar this year with'Drishyam'. A remake of Jeethu Joseph's 2013 Malayalam film'Drishyam', Devgn brilliantly touched the chords of his fans, whohave long been seeing him in comic roles in movies like Golmaal.The emotional turmoil of his character has been wonderfullyportrayed by the 'Zakhm' star. The film performed well on theBox Office and was appreciated both by fans and critics.AKSHAY KUMAR: The 'Khiladi' of Bollywood remained thestar of Bollywood this year giving tough competition to his col-leagues in the industry, including Bollywood rocker SalmanKhan. Akshay dominated the year with almost all his films mak-ing a powerful impact on the Box Office. The year started withAkshay's 'Baby' where the superstar is seen portraying the roleof a tough Indian security agent Ajay Singh Rajput. Kumar'sperformance in the movie was appreciated by critics and his fanswith even Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visiting a the-atre to watch the film before the results of the Delhi polls. Theaction star returned again with 'Gabbar Is Back' where he wasseen fighting against corruption and charming his lovers withhis thrilling action scenes and moves. Away from patriotism, hewas seen as a boxer, sharing screen space and ring with SidharthMalhotra, in ' Brothers'. His last release of the year Singh Is Bli-ing once again saw him experimenting in comic roles. 2016promises to be another crucial year for the actor as he will beseen in 'Airlift' opposite Nimrat Kaur. The film is based onbiggest evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the 1990airlift of Indians from Kuwait.

AMITABH BACHCHAN: From shooting in a graveyardto riding a scooter, Big B was busy shooting for his upcomingfilm "TE3N" in West Bengal in the fag end of the year but it wasKolkata and his wonderful portrayal of a Bengali father asBhashkor Banerjee in 'Piku' which forced his fans fall in lovewith the baritone voiced actor once more. Sharing screen spacewith Deepika Padukone, the onscreen father-daughter duo andtheir journey in Shoojit Sircar's tale left many movie goers nos-talgic and heavy hearted. Bachchan was also seen competingwith southern sensation Dhanush in one of the most talked aboutfilms of the year ' Shamitabh'. Bachchan was back on the silver screen as an anchor but thistime with a new show named "Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi"(AKRHZ). One peak point in the show was when onscreenfriends 'Jai-Veeru'- actors Dharmendra and Bachchan- unitedon the sets to recreate the 'Ye dosti hum nahi choorenge' songsequence from 'Sholay'.ANIL KAPOOR: Mr. Dependable Anil Kapoor put up a strongshow as a father in Dil Dhadakne Do and then came back withhis perfect comic timings in Welcome Back , playing the lovable

don Majnu Bhai with both the films getting good response atthe box office.BIPASHA BASU: Gossips on her alleged relationship withactor Karan Singh Grover and her love for 'Horror' kept the Bongbeauty in news this year. She was once again back on the silverscreen with another horror movie 'Alone', opposite Grover. Thefilm made moderate business at the Box Office but Bipasha kepther promise of returning with a horror flick every year. The divaalso made her small screen debut as the host of a horror televi-sion series 'Darr Sabko Lagta Hai'.

DEEPIKA PADUKONE: A short film ' "My Choice", fea-turing the gorgeous actress had gained the attention of many asDeepika was seen putting forward a strong message over womenempowerment, hence triggering long debates and discussionson media platforms and social networking sites in a year whenthe issue of 'intolerance and women safety' kept buzzing in theair. Deepika, however, remained the queen of Bollywood foranother year and competed hard with Priyanka Chopra in wear-ing the numero uno crown as almost all her films got healthyresponse from fans and critics. Her high point in the year wassurely sharing the screen space with Amitabh Bachchan andIrrfan Khan in Piku. She again came back on screen with her oldflame Ranbir Kapoor in 'Tamasha' this November. The movieremained the talk of the town as one time real couple unitedagain for Imtiaz Ali after two years since seen together in 2013hit 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani' . In December , she was againseen playing the role of Mastani, opposite real life boy friendRanveer Singh, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Bajirao Mastani'. The end of the year also saw the diva grabbing eye-balls withher Instagram picture hugging Vin Diesel and mysteriouslylooking in camera giving us the speculation of her signing theXXX franchise's next opposite the Hollywood star.DHANUSH: The southern superstar 'Dhanush' returned to theB-town with Amitabh Bachchan in ' Shamitabh'.EMRAAN HASHMI: Emraan Hashmi had a dud 2015 withnone of his films-Mr. X and Hamari Adhuri Kahani- making anymark at the box office.FARHAAN AKHTAR: Appearing just once with DilDhadakne Do, Farhan Akhtar made a strong appearance in themulti-starrer movie. However, he keeps promises alive to deliv-er big next year when he will be seen with Amitabh Bachchanin' Wazir'. The thriller will bring together two of the big namesof the industry together.HRITHIK ROSHAN: In a poll conducted this year by UKbased Eastern Eye newspaper, Hrithik Roshan has been namedas the second Sexiest Asian Man, making him still one of themost sought after 'superheroes' of Bollywood. With no releasesthis year, Hrithik Roshan remained far away from the silverscreen this year.IRRFAN KHAN: He is slowly gaining a stronger grip in Hol-lywood as he appeared in one of the top movies of the year 'Juras-sic World'. The fourth installment of the Jurassic Park seriessaw Khan brilliantly portraying the character called SimonMasrani. His other Bollywood appearances were no lessimpressive as he was seen in 'Piku', 'Talvar' and then in Aish-warya Rai Bachchan's comeback film 'Jazbaa'. Khan surely isplanning to deliver more in the coming years and surely in 2016when he will be seen in 'Inferno'. The Hollywood film will alsofeature superstar Tom Hanks.

JACQUELINE FERANANDEZ: The Sri Lankan beautyalso walked on the paths of International appearance as shecompleted the shooting of her much awaited movie 'Definitionof Fear '. British filmmaker James Simpson's movie featuresthe beautiful Bollywood actress in a crucial role. The premiereof the English film was held in 4th Delhi International Film Fes-tival (DIFF) in India. In Bollywood, Jacqueline continued tomature and grow as an actress with films like Roy and Broth-ers. JOHN ABRAHAM: Bollywood hunk John Abraham wasback on the bigger screen with Welcome Back. Directed byAnees Bazmee, the film has performed good result at the boxoffice as the movie included other big names including NanaPatekar and Anil Kapoor.KAREENA KAPOOR: Kareena Kapoor remained one of thetop heroines in the industry even this year, giving tough com-petition to younger heroines like Deepika. She started the yearwith Akshay Kumar in one of the early gainers at the Box Office-Gabbar is Back. Then, it was one of the biggest hits of the year-Bajrangi Bhaijaan- where Kareena teamed up with superstarSalman Khan in creating magic onscreen this Eid. Overall,Kareena kept her promise of keeping her aura in the industryintact by some powerful performances on the silver screen.KATRINA KAIF: While the entire year was buzzing with sto-ries on Katrina Kaif and Bollywood's pinup boy Ranbir Kapoor'slove story, the last month continuously brought one gossip tonotice- the couple is ending their relationship. Away from herpersonal life, Katrina just emerged once on the big screen inKabir Khan's action thriller film Phantom. The screenplay ofthe film has been written in coordination with author HussainZaidi's book Mumbai Avengers on the aftermath of 26/11 Mum-bai attacks. Despite Katrina's Afghan Jalebi number, and SaifAli Khan's heroics, the film bombed at the Box Office, leavingKatrina's success story quite badly hit this year.

KANGANA RANAUT : Anand L. Rai was back again withthe sequel to the 2011 film Tanu Weds Manu, which he namedthis time as Tanu Weds Manu Returns . The powerhouse of act-ing, Kangana Ranaut came up with a double role this time withR. Madhavan in this romantic comedy which was once againsuccessful in touching the Indian audience who love to watchfamily dramas. Ranaut also portrays the additional role of aHaryanvi athlete in it. The film emerged as one of the biggestearners of 2015 with both the critics and audience loving it alike.Ranaut's other films of the year-I Love NY, opposite Sunny Deoland Katti Batti with Imran Khan - went mostly unnoticed.

NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI: With every passing year,Bollywood is becoming more dependent on Nawazuddin Sid-diqui who has been showing the depth of his talents in eachrelease. 2015 remained another milestone in his career as hewas seen in movies like Manjhi - The Mountain Man and Bad-lapur. With Varun Dhawan experimenting in a serious avatar,he found a tough competition against Nawazuddin Siddiquiwho portrayed the character 'Liak' quite flawlessly. While, Bad-lapur did average on the box office it was Radhika Apte andNawaz's unconventional chemistry and the 'Kahaani' actor'swonderful depiction of "Mountain Man" Dashrath Manjhi's lifeonscreen which pulled audience to the theatre. Nawazuddin Siddiqui also teamed up with Salman Khan andHarshaali Malhotra in one of the biggest hits of the year 'Bajran-gi Bhaijaan'. The film made a grand success at the Box Officeand Nawaz-Salman duo repeated the magic which they had cre-ated with 'Kick' last year. PRIYANKA CHOPRA: After capturing Bollywood, 2015turned out to be the red letter year in Priyanka's life as she gainedimmense attention for her international debut as a promisingFBI agent Alex Parrish in American series 'Quantico'. Priyankaperformance in the series has been highly appreciated by herfans abroad and in India. Touching a new high point in hercareer, she has become the first South Asian woman to headlinean American network drama series. In Bollywood too, she hadtwo crucial releases this year- Dil Dhadakne Do and Bajirao Mas-tani. The multi-starrer Dil Dhadakne Do did good performanceat the Box Office while Bajirao Mastani which released on Dec18 has received positive reviews from critics.RANBIR KAPOOR: While gossips said that Ranbir and hisBollywood Barbie Katrina Kaif are planning to end their muchtalked about relationship, the cute faced actor's run on the BoxOffice was not that impressive this year with Roy and BombayVelvet faring poorly. Tamasha got mixed response but did notcreate the magic which Imtiaz Ali's films are known to create.However, the reunion of former lovers Ranbir and DeepikaPadukone had made the movie a major release for 2015.RANI MUKERJI: Rani Mukherji became a mother this yearas the 'Mardaani' actress gave birth to a baby girl in December.She is married to filmmaker Aditya Chopra. They named herAdira.SAIF ALI KHAN: It seems that Saif Ali Khan is slowly losingthe tag of becoming the dependable star of Bollywood withnearly all his films failing to touch the hearts of audience forthe past few years. 2015 remained one such year which the actorwill love to forget as his 'Phantom' hit rough weathers soon afterit released. The Kabir Khan directed movie, which also had Kat-rina Kaif, exited fast from theatres. SALMAN KHAN: Salman Khan surely knows how to createthe perfect formula to produce one successful movie after theother. The much-talked about 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' , whichreleased on Eid, kept smashing all records and turned out to beone of the biggest hits of the year. The heart touching tale ofBajrangi and his journey to take a six-year old Pakistani girlMunni, separated in India from her parents, back to her home-town, was loved by people across India. Salman was back againin Diwali, uniting with Sooraj Barjatya and the Rajshri Pro-ductions, to deliver another hit of the year- Prem Ratan DhanPayo. The movie saw Salman Khan reappearing as his signa-ture character name 'Prem' after a long time. In his personallife, Salman received a relief when he was acquitted by the Bom-bay High Court in December of all criminal charges that he hadbeen held guilty of by a trial court in connection with the 2002hit-and-run case.SHAH RUKH KHAN: His comments on intolerance was notaccepted easily by all, triggering criticisms and even BJP leaderYogi Adityanath comparing him with 26/11 terror mastermindHafiz Saeed of Pakistan. Like Aamir Khan, Bollywood and thesociety was divided as they either came out in support orslammed the actor for his remark on the growing issue of intol-erance. Beside the controversy, Khan's KKR team also failed todefend their IPL title this year which was won back by Mum-bai Indians. SRK had one major release in 2015- Dilwale- wherehe was seen pairing up with Kajol after a gap of five years. Theywere last seen together onscreen in 2010 in 'Mu Name isKhan'. The film opened with poor reviews on Dec 18 butremained successful on the Box Office. SONAM KAPOOR: Dolly Ki Doli might have bombed at theBox Office, but Sonam had a impressive run later in the year asshe was seen romancing Salman Khan in Prem Ratan DhanPayo. Sonam will be eagerly waiting for her 2016 release whenshe will be seen playing India's brave daughter Neerja Bhanot

on the big screen. The youngest woman to be awarded theAshoka Chakra, Neerja Bhanot, died saving 360 innocent pas-sengers during a terrorist hijack on the Pan Am Flight 73 onSeptember 5, 1986. SIDHARTH MALHOTRA: Sidharth Malhotra is maturingas an actor with every passing year and this time he was seensharing ring and screen space with superstar Akshay Kumar in'Brothers'. The film performed well at the Box Office and Sid-harth proved once again he was no more the 'Student' of thisyear but an actor gearing up to dominate the industry. SUNNY LEONE: She might be an actress who arrived in thetinsel town from an unconventional land but that does not meanSunny has not delivered with her performance. With two majorBollywood releases- Ek Paheli Leela and Kuch Kuch Locha Hai- and several appearances in regional films, her fever continuedto rise the mercury level in India. The Baby Doll will be seenromancing Tushar Kapoor and Vir Das in 2016 release Masti-zaade. She dominated on the virtual world too as the adult filmactress defeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi to emerge asthe most searched person on Google in India. Sunny is also themost searched Indian globally.VIDYA BALAN: Mrs. Dependable of Bollywood, Vidya Bal-an, came back this year with Hamari Adhuri Kahani, oppositeEmraan Hashmi. However, the film bombed at the Box Officeand failed to impress both fans and critics.

VARUN DHAWAN: From sharing screen space withsuperstars Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale to experi-menting with serious roles in 'Badlapur ' opposite Nawazud-din Siddiqui and then dancing around in 'ABCD 2', VarunDhawan spent one busy year in his career and that too with suc-cess as all his released movies gained appreciations from fans.

HITS, WITHOUT STARS:While the year 2015 saw the creation of the 300 crore club,

there were also many small films that performed extremely wellat the box office.

Gone are the days when only big films were awaited andaccepted by the audiences. Now, the audiences are very opento small budget films as well that are starring smaller actorsand not shot at exotic international locations.

In fact small films too have a fixed set of audience just likethere is a fixed set of audience for the big event films. The audi-ences of these small budget films step in the theatres with theexpectation of good content films which the industry has deliv-ered this year.

Films like Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Talvar, Hunterrr, Margari-ta With A Straw and Manjhi have not only received a lot ofappreciation from the audiences and critics for the content, butalso garnered good box office collections.TALVAR: A film based on the double murder Noida case star-ring Irrfan Khan, Neeraj Kabi, Konkana Sen and Sohum Shahreceived a lot of accolades even at film festivals and collected atotal of 35 crore net.DUM LAGA KE HAISHA: Ayushmann Khurrana and new-comer Bhumi Pednekar's unconventional love tale was set in asmall town and was widely appreciated for the strong story andsimplistic portrayal. The film collected a total of 33 crore net.HUNTERRR: A coming of age film by debut director Harsh-vardhan Kulkarni, starring Gulshan Devaiah, Radhika Apteand Marathi actress, Sai Tamankar found a big audience tooand collected 13.50 crore net. MANJHI, MARGARITA WITH A STRAW, NH10 :Another real life story starring the two actors known for theirperformances, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte (Man-jhi) and NH10 starring Anushka Sharma and Rajkumar Raomade a mark at the Box Office. Kalki Koechlin took hearts awaywhen she played a rebellious young woman with cerebral pal-sy in Margarita. The film did rounds of various film festivalsand with this solo actress collected 5.97 crore net apart fromhuge appreciations for story and performance. HOLLY-WOOD BECKONS:Sizzling diva, Deepika Padukone who grabbed eye-balls with herInstagram picture hugging Vin Diesel and mysteriously lookingin camera giving us the speculation of her signing the XXX fran-chise's next opposite the Hollywood star.Let's take a look at someBollywood actors who entered Hollywood this year:NARGIS FAKHRI IN SPY: Nargis, who with her good act-ing capabilities proved that she can be a desi girl too, broke thenews of her Hollywood debut in the film 'Spy'.

ALI FAZAL IN FAST AND FURIOUS 7:Ali Fazal stunned his fans with the news of him working in thefavourite Hollywood franchise 'Fast and Furious 7'. This addeda new milestone to the actor's career. The hunk has few moreoffers in loop which he will pick wisely.NIMRIT KAUR IN HOMELAND: The 'Lunchbox' actresswho with her great acting skills had smitten the audience, madeher way to Hollywood with the TV series 'Homeland'. The actresswill be seen romancing Akshay Kumar in Airlift.

PRIYANKA CHOPRA IN QUANTICO: Bollywood'sfavourite Pee Cee after surprising her fans by releasing singleswith rappers like Pitbull and will.i.am. left all her fans acrossglobe excited when she broke news of playing protagonist inAmerican TV series 'Quantico'. (TWF)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2015 (PAGE-4)

As the year 2015 almost draws to a close, Supriyo Hazra looks back howthe leading stars of the dazzling B-town fared in the past 12 months