2010: Top 10 Controversies of this year

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Shobhaa De vs Punit Malhotra and Sonam Kapoor

Celebrated columnist Shobhaa De didn't like debut director Punit Malhotra's film 'I Hate Luv Storys' and said in her column that he needs to be spanked. Punit straight took her on and tweeted, "Guys please don't take Shobhaa De seriously. She is a fossil going through menopause. She doesn't get action."

Sonam Kapoor, who played in the said film jumped into the fray and re-tweeted Punit's tweet. De, enraged by this, wrote in her column that Sonam doesn't show signs of decent upbringing. Soon after, Sonam (apparently at the behest of dad Anil Kapoor) sent an apology tweet to De, saying "I am ashamed for my momentary lapse of judgement. Every writer, journalist and audience is entitled to her opinion and I respect that."

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When glamour went out of IPL

It came as a big shock to Bollywood beauties Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta when their respective IPL teams, 'Rajasthan Royals' and 'Punjab Kings XI' was terminated. The two teams apparently had breached their IPL contracts, and it was suspected that the former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has had financial interest in both the teams. The actresses have taken the case to court.

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SRK Vs Shiv Sena

Looks like this is the year that Shiv Sena decided to take on none other than the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan himself. Earlier in the year, they objected to him sympathising with the Pakistani cricket players not being included in the IPL teams. They had threatened to vandalise 'My Name Is Khan', a SRK movie which was up for release at that time. Recently, Sena took on SRK again when there were reports of the probability of him giving a stage performance in Bangladesh.

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Bollywood Vs Hollywood

Finally Hollywood woke up to the plagiarism that Bollywood has been indulging in for years. The makers of 'Phone Booth' took a serious interest in Irrfan Khan- Sanjay Dutt starrer 'Knock Out' as they felt the story is a straight lift from their film. The producers of 'Knock Out' had to pay the studio 1.5 crores as damages. Karan Johar proved to be wiser as he officially took rights of 'Stepmom' to remake it into 'We Are Family'.

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Aamir Khan Vs Chetan Bhagat

This is a controversy which started late last year with the release of '3 Idiots' and spilled on to early this year. Bhagat had accused the producers of film, Vidhu Vinod Chopra of having lifted the entire story from his novel, 'Five Point Someone', and not giving him proper credits or payments. Aamir Khan, the lead actor of the film, had retaliated by saying 'Chetan is trying to take away the credit from the film's writer, Abhijat Joshi'. Chopra, director RajKumar Hirani and Khan had even called for a press conference to clear their stand. The controversy died a natural death after Bhagat sheepishly apologised to Khan.