Bollywood's milestones in 2008

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Bollywood's milestones in 2008
The Year of A R Rahman

This year, the maestro was everywhere. And that's always a good thing.
Not just did Allah Rakha Rahman, now 42, give us a slew of eclectic soundtracks far more than his usual Hindi film quota -- Ghajini, Ada, Yuvvraaj, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na and Jodhaa Akbar -- but the man also picked up a Golden Globe nod for his phenomenal score in Danny Boyle's Bombay-lovin' Slumdog Millionaire.

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Ranbir-Deepika, and another tattoo
Saif-Kareena is so last year. Without even nickname speculation (Ranpika? Deebir?), this relationship between the star kids of a badminton player and a Bollywood romantic has taken centrestage.

Gushing tell-all interviews take up magazine spreads, and the attractive Ms Padukone has embellished the back of her neck with her man's letters: RK, a tattoo that may well just be a banner.

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Amitabh Bachchan starts blogging
Opinions were divided on the Big B's entry into the blogosphere. Some felt he was articulating basic thoughts goodnaturedly, others thought he was undoing the mystique by writing about absolutely everything, while still others smarted at the way Bachchan took potshots at everyone who annoyed him.

Still, the fact remains that before he came along, 'blog' was an alien word to the industry: and now everyone's got one.

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Industry uses recession as an excuse
Think Bollywood's reeling from the ongoing global recession? Sure it is, but not by as much as they'd like to have you believe. This is an industry running on undeclared profits -- this currency's tinted pretty black -- yet producers are pretending to scurry for cover just so they can chop down star prices. Stars demanding a crore and a half are now negotiating for about 50 lakhs, and the sky continues to fall.

After the mad rates advertised by Akshay Kumar, everyone's prices had skyrocketed. The resultant correction had to take place, but this recession excuse really helped hasten its coming.

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Katrina Kaif's birthday party
The ravishing Miss Kaif turned 24 on July 16, and all hell broke loose in the city of Mumbai. What else can you say about a birthday party where the two biggest men in the industry almost come to blows? Depending on whatever report you read, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan were ready to disregard any Karan-Arjun brotherhood of yore as they stood around and insulted each other. Since the event, the two have been anything but warm, and it's amusing to see two grown men acting like this.



And while their comments in the press have been decidedly catty, a third Khan joined the melee earlier in the year by naming his dog after the star.