With so many stars jostling for the limelight, it’s inconceivable that scandals not occur. 2008 had its fair share. Here we list some of the most eye-catching ones.
Aamir Khan’s dog causes a stir
Aamir Khan woke up one morning and decided he had gone long enough without riling somebody. So he decided to pick on King Khan himself. On his blog, he claimed Shah Rukh licked his feet and begged for his attention. A few lines later, he clarified that Shah Rukh is his dog in his Panchgani house.
But his ‘tongue-in-cheek’ humour did not elicit too many laughs. Though the real SRK kept a dignified silence, his fans went all out against Aamir. There may not have been effigy burnings, but the blogosphere was practically burned to cinders.
Salman plays spoil sport on Kat’s birthday
Why won’t people let Shah Rukh Khan mind his own business? After Aamir Khan tried poking holes in the actor with his ‘doggy’ darts, Salman Khan decided to see how far he could push King Khan without being punched in the face. And he came dangerously close to landing up in a body cast.
At Katrina’s birthday party, Salman supposedly mocked SRK about the non-performance of Kya Aap Panchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?. Shah Rukh took it as much as he could and then allegedly retaliated with a choice comment that had Salman see red and lower his horns. The fight soon spilled out into Bollywood, with the Mumbai film industry dividing into two camps. However, SRK is not too cut up. According to him, “I think like a father, while Salman thinks like a child!” Touche!
Rakhi Sawant kicks out Abishek Awasthi
The queen of controversy wanted to put away her cape and settle down for the happily ever after. Rakhi wanted to forget item numbers for a while and concentrate on babies instead. But her boyfriend of four years didn’t seem to want to spend a lifetime with her. So, true to her spirit, she planted a well-placed kick on his backside and booted him out the door.
A weepy Rakhi then went to town about how her heart had been irreparably broken. She took the higher ground, claiming she didn’t want revenge-that God would take revenge on her behalf. But then she also advised Abhishek’s new girl to use ‘him and dump him’. So what does that make Rakhi-holier than thou, thirsting for revenge, or just another item girl wanting her 15 minutes of fame? You decide. 
Kareena dumps Shahid, hooks up with Saif
Things were not looking up for Bebo in 2007. And perhaps she blamed it on beau Shahid Kapoor. Because the moment she discovered her Tashan with Saif Ali Khan, she promptly forgot the halcyon Jab We Met days. It was the boot for Shahid and the red carpet for the chote nawab.
And with the dawn of 2008, things began to look up. It’s been a media frenzy over Saif’s deewangi, his Kareena tattoo, his bonding with her mum, her bonding with his kids, the possibility of a wedding, his possessiveness-you name it, the gossip rags had it.
While reports of Saif’s green streak kept us entertained for weeks, the tattoo will surely go down in the annals of Bollywood history as the corniest way to demonstrate one’s love. But then no publicity is bad publicity. So we say smart gal, Bebo!
To wed or not to wed
Another hook up that got a lot of publicity-most of them bad-was the wedding of Sanjay Dutt and Manyata. First, they got hitched in Goa. But the court put their marriage registration on hold because it found that the Goa residence certificate the bride had furnished was questionable.
A few days later, the couple got hitched in a Hindu ceremony in Mumbai. But this, too, ran into trouble when Manyata’s former husband resurfaced claiming she was still married to him and, hence, her marriage was bigamous. Just as things were hotting up, the court upheld that Manyata was legally divorced and was free to marry again. Phew! Close call, that. Now the blushing bride and the gracefully greying husband are sitting pretty, waiting for another controversy to crop up.
Ram Gopal Varma gets his due
If it was coincidence or bad timing, we are not sure. What we are sure about is that after the terror attack on the Taj, Ram Gopal Varma and Riteish Deshmukh accompanied former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to the hotel.
And the fire that ignited was almost as hot as the one that engulfed the heritage hotel. People were scandalised that the director would be so ‘insensitive’ as to scout the building as research for a new film. RGV tried to douse everyone’s anger, claiming: “I have no intention of making a film ever on this issue. Just because it happened to be Riteish [who is acting in his new film Rann], I walked with him.” But not too many are convinced.
Tanushree Dutta vs Nana Patekar
On the sets of Horn Ok Please, not everyone said ok or please. The scent of a scandal first came to us when the producer of the film summoned the media, claiming Tanushree was being unprofessional and had refused to do an item number. Then came a statement from the actress stating that the veteran actor had tried to get fresh with her, and despite complaints, no action had been taken against him.
Nana was quick to claim that she is like a “bachchi” to him. But Tanushree was not willing to retract her words-despite the media turning nasty and Nana’s fans strident demonstrations. Since we are still no closer to the truth of the matter, we’d like to give the benefit of doubt to both parties.
Skirt’ing the issue
She came, she saw, and she caused a furore. Mallika Sherawat came to Chennai for the audio launch of Kamal Hassan’s Dasavatharam dressed to kill in a shirt skirted number. Unfortunately, people in the audience were jealous of her legs and decided to take her to court.
A fundamentalist organisation lodged a PIL claiming that Mallika had “hurt the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu by wearing a revealing mini skirt, exposing her back and sitting cross legged in front of the chief minister”. Thankfully, sense prevailed and the case was thrown out.
Someone is always watching
The contestants of Bigg Boss created headlines both inside and outside the house. Rahul Mahajan led the band of ‘news making’ boys. He courted Monica Bedi and then decided he would ditch her and break out of the house. The ‘great escape’ was nipped in its bud and he was evicted from the house as a reward.
Then it was Zulfi Sayed’s turn to hit the headlines. After Ashutosh Kaushik won the cash cow, Zulfi went public with claims that Rahul had used his political clout and rigged the votes. Just as that scandal was dying on, runner up Raja Chaudhary decided he’d kindle the fire of his own. He was arrested after he allegedly molested a girl in his car. And these were the guys India stayed up nights to watch!
Malaika: divorced from reality
Malaika Arora must have thought that a couple of songs here and a few ads there were not enough to keep the public’s interest in her alive. So when a skin care company approached her to create hype about a divorce from husband Arbaaz Khan as part of their ad campaign (the idea was that the cream would bring the couple back together), she played the perfect drama queen-the one that gave meaningful looks and ‘loaded’ pauses that could be interpreted any way you wanted.
The media was taken in for a while. But when they realised that they had been played, their fury was worse than a woman scorned. Last heard, Malaika was slinking around in baggy clothes to avoid detection.
When Amitabh Bachchan does something, he does it with all his heart and soul. So when he decided to start blogging, he gave it his all-even going sleepless to complete his entries. But what he didn’t realise was that all the honest spilling of guts was actually revealing a side of himself best left undiscovered-a whiny side.
When critic Khalid Mohamed criticised Bhootnath, he took it personally and targeted the man, calling him the director who “made three of the most colossal bombs in the history of Indian cinema” and referring to him as someone who would go to Big B’s home only to drink his “exclusive and expensive wine”.
More recently, after the Mumbai attack, Bachchan wrote that he slept with his .32 revolver under his pillow. But when the media reported on it, he claimed he meant the gun as a symbolic metaphor. Huh?
