The year 2016 is about to end and undoubtedly it has been a roller coaster ride for the Hindi film industry and its glittering stars. Like every year, Bollywood delivered high grossing as well as duds this year while the stars had their fare share of ups and downs.
The year began with Akhay Kumar’s Airlift, which was a critical and commercial success. A sudden liking towards movies with a patriotic theme has made Akshay one of the leading stars in the last couple of years and 2016 was no different. With Airlift followed closely by Rustom, Akshay has ruled the roost in 2016.
The ‘Badshah’ of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan once again left the viewers spellbound with his performance in the movie Fan. Another Khan who ruled the box-office like always was Salman Khan with his movie Sultan registering record collection at the box office.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has proved to be lucky for both Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. Even though the movie released after a storm of controversies and problems, it successfully won the appreciation of audience and critics. Anushka also won the award for best actor 2016 for this movie.
2016 was also the year of biopics.
It started with Emraan Hashmi playing the role of Mohammad Azharuddin in Azhar followed by Sushant Singh Rajput portraying Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the biopic MS Dhoni-the untold story and ended with Aamir Khan’s Dangal based on the life of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters.
While Azhar tasted mediocre success, MS Dhoni catapulted lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput among the leading stars of the industry after a brief lull following the lukewarm response to his last movie Detective Byomkesh Bakshi.
This year saw some tremendous performances by the ladies of Bollywood.
From Sonam Kapoor in Neerja to Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab and Dear Zindagi proved that 2016 was the year of ladies dominating Bollywood.
Furthermore, the movie Pink set an example and a milestone in the Hindi cinema world with a strong message on equal rights for women. Tapsee Pannu’s performance made her stand out and will hopefully open the doors to more opportunities for her.
However, Pink would have been incomplete without Amitabh Bachchan and Piyush Mishra. They added weight to the overall impact of the movie and made it a successful venture by director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhary.
Udta Punjab was another impactful film of this year which was not only critically acclaimed but loved by the audience. After Haider, this can be considered to be the best performance of Shahid Kapoor in recent times.
Two of the most talented actors of Bollywood, Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui gave stellar performances in Madari and Raman Raghav 2.0 respectively.
The year ended with a bang thanks to Dangal.
The ‘perfectionist’, Amir worked hard on his physique to portray the life of a wrestler and the film is doing well on the box office.
The year 2016 was ruled by both young and veteran actors, and we are about to enter the New Year with a hope that the ever entertaining Bollywood continues to produce more engaging and quality movies in 2017.