Take a look at the decade's biggest controversies.
Madhuri Dixit's comeback movie, Aaja Nachle, fell foul of caste pundits with song lyrics that translated as "There is chaos in the neighborhood, even the Mochi (Cobbler) calls himself a Sunar (Goldsmith'). Dalit groups claimed that the song implied that mochis were inferior to sunars. Uttar Pradesh banned the movie on the day it released with Punjab and Haryana following suit. It took a written apology and a change of lyrics to have the ban removed
Screen Jodi Hrithik and Aishwarya were called out by the moral brigade for their liplock in Dhoom 2 – which, frankly, left everyone else cold. Their next movie together, Jodhaa Akbar, also ran into choppy waters and not just because of Ash's low-cut blouses. Historians claimed that the portrayal of ethnic Rajputs was inaccurate and the Jodhaa-Akbar relationship itself was hotly debated. Protests in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were followed by the predictable ban on the film.
The latest season of Bigg Boss kept things spicy with a live wedding, onscreen intimacy and PDA, and lots of unparliamentary language. A guest appearance by a scantily-clad Pamela Anderson made sure it was filed under C for controversy.
Bollywood's baddest boy Salman Khan made a habit of breaking the law through the decade. In 2002, his car ran over people sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai, killing 1 and injuring 3. He was arrested for rash and negligent driving but later found not guilty, though he will stand trial for lesser charges. In 2006, he was sentenced to 5 years for hunting the endangered Chinkara. He went to jail for 6 days in 2007.
Technology was the mother of scandalous invention with more than one star embarrassed by MMS clips. The steamy Kareena-Shahid liplock jumpstarted the unsavoury trend and was followed by Riya Sen and Ashmit Patel getting frisky on camera. Soha Ali Khan was secretly filmed nude while changing in a beauty parlour.
17 At One Go: Mallika Sherawat hit relatively demure Bollywood like an atom bomb with her 17 kisses in debut movie Khwahish. Leading man Himanshu Malik disappeared into oblivion but Mallika went on with her no-holds-barred skin show in next movie, Murder. Her willingness to do it all took her West into Hollywood and she now has a milkshake named after her in Los Angeles.
Shiney Ahuja's life imitated art when he was accused of rape by his domestic help and spent 3 months in jail. The actor claimed the sex was consensual, his wife was in denial and accused the maid of blackmail and the maid herself withdrew her complaint and confessed to have been forced into blackmail by her aunt. The sordid saga continues.
Nation's sweetheart Aishwarya Rai ended her 2 year relationship with Salman Khan amid much acrimony and accusations of physical assault. More trouble ensued when dumper Aishwarya quickly moved on to chocolate boy Vivek Oberoi sending dumpee Salman green with jealousy. Vivek called a press conference in which he claimed to have received drunken and abusive calls from Salman. Pretty soon, Vivek was relegated to ex-boyfriend status as well, but not before the whole affair had left a bad taste in the Bollywood mouth.
Shilpa Shetty gave her failing Bollywood career a shot in the arm with an appearance on UK reality show Big Brother and found herself on the receiving end of some racial bullying by housemate Jade Goody. Hot bod Shilpa rode a wave of public sympathy to win the season, a victory that was as much the nation's as her own. Back home, she was Bollywood hot property again and it didn't hurt that she was also a household name in the UK .
Because She's Worth It?: Too big for her Bollywood boots, Sonam Kapoor had barely cut her filmi teeth when she shot off her mouth about no less a person than Queen Bee Aishwarya herself. As L'Oreal's newest face, Sonam had some cutting things to say about how she deserved the honour as she was on the right side of 30. Ouch! We'll be waiting and watching for Ash's return volley in 2011.
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke might have remained a blip on the Bollywood radar had it not been for the revelation that it had been funded by the Mumbai underworld. The resulting controversy culminated in the famous Bharat Shah case which revealed an existing nexus between film personalities and the mafia. A dimpled Preity Zinta was feted for having the gumption to testify in court about having received threatening phone calls.
Saifeena's “sexy back” poster for Kurbaan slipped past mommy Sharmila Tagore, then chief of the Censor Board, but didn't escape the wrath of the Shiv Sena moralists who took it upon themselves to provide Kareena with a saree with which to cover up .
My Name Is Khan was riddled with controversy right from its shooting days to the release. Discrimination against SRK at the Newark airport brought the film publicity, but the actor's secular believes in the IPL matter were misconstrued by, guess who, the Shiv Sena (again)who branded the actor as a "traitor" for being okay with Pakistani cricketers' participation.
SRK and Salman first locked horns when Sallu, then Ash's boyfriend, disrupted shooting on the sets of Chalte Chalte. This year, the stars collided at Katrina Kaif's birthday where a drunk Salman got on family man SRK's wrong side resulting in an ugly face-off between the two Khans.
And it was Khan Calling Khan names when the usually diplomatic Aamir took to his blog to tell anyone who cared to listen about his dog, named Shah Rukh, who licked his feet. We don't know what prompted this lapse of reason but we do know that it put Aamir in the doghouse for the Badshah of Bollywood.
Yes We Khan: But just when we thought the star wars would end in a Bollywood black hole, SRK and Aamir put aside their differences in light of the producers' strike.
Slumdog Millionaire may have hit Oscar paydirt but back in Bollywood it ran foul of no less a person than Big B himself, who said "if SM projects India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations." He was immediately suspected of being less than pleased with Anil Kapoor's scene-stealing turn as the creepy quiz show anchor but he struck a nationalist chord across the country.
Nobody is surprised anymore when Rakhi Sawant makes the wrong sort of news but she outdid herself with talk show Rakhi Ka Insaaf on which she called a contestant “namard”, following which he stopped eating and finally died. The show has also been under fire for indecent content and was forced to push back from it's original time slot to a late night one.
Ashutosh Gowariker pulled a Kanye West on Priyanka Chopra as he went up to get his Best Director Award at IIFA 2009. In his acceptance speech Ashutosh said “Priyanka I Love You, but I don't know how you got the award for Best Actress when Aishwarya was also nominated in the same category for Jodhaa Akbar”. The actress smiled gracefully through the public embarrassment but made her displeasure clear after the awards were over.
Monica Bedi has made it to the front page periodically through the decade, first as the glamorous girl-friend of underworld don Abu Salem, then for passport forgery and other misdeameanours in Lisbon. Back home, she kept herself on the radar with a stint on reality show Bigg Boss and an alleged affair with fellow housemate Rahul Mahajan.
