Akshay Kumar & Aryan Khan
Akshay Kumar continued as the top gun with ‘Sooryavanshi’, 2021’s only super-hit that collected Rs 200 crore despite 50 percent occupancy in four states. Before that, Akshay’s ‘Bell Bottom’ resumed the business for Bollywood, the worst-affected industry by the pandemic. The veteran’s ‘Atarangi Re’ will drop on OTT on Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was in the news for the wrong reasons, when he was arrested and released on bail in a drug scandal.
Biopics
Biopics and real stories continued — ‘Shershaah’ on Captain Vikram Batra, ‘Bhuj:The Pride Of India’ on Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik, ‘Sardar Udham’, ‘Saina’, ‘The Big Bull’ on Harshad Mehta, ‘83’ on the Indian cricket team, and ‘Bell Bottom’.
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
For coming out with a hard-hitting movie in the guise of a romance, director Abhishek Kapoor and team deserve praise for ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’.
Directors
Vishnu Varadhan (Shershaah) topped the list of directors with promise. Sujoy Ghosh’s daughter Riya Annapurna Ghosh (‘Bob Biswas’), Umesh Bisht (‘Pagglait’) and Raj Singh Chaudhary (‘Shaadisthan’) also made a mark.
Excuses
The pandemic became an excuse for some disappointing films that were claimed as would-have-been-hits. The cold fact is that only ‘Shershaah’ and ‘Mimi’ would have worked had they hit the screens.
Future
So the writing on the wall is clearer than ever: films must be big-screen value-for-money entertainment. Why ‘Sooryavanshi’ worked, and ‘Satyameva Jayate 2’ and ‘Antim’ did not, needs open minds to analyse.
Gap
Returning to work after a gap of years were Neetu (Singh) Kapoor, signing ‘Jug Jug Jeeyo’ eight years after ‘Besharam’, Fardeen Khan in ‘Visfot’ (11 years), Shilpa Shetty (Hungama 2/14 years) and Divya Khosla Kumar (Satyameva… /17 years).
Honours
Rajanikanth received the Dadasaheb Phalke award while SP Balasubrahmanyam was conferred the Padma Vibhushan posthumously.
Immortality
We lost the legend Dilip Kumar, composer Shravan and powerhouse character artiste Surekha Sikri, among others.
Jersey
‘Jersey’ is the last release of 2021 (December 31) and is expected to consolidate Shahid Kapoor’s stardom after ‘Kabir Singh’ (2019).
Katrina Kaif
Katrina Kaif was in the news for two reasons: ‘Sooryavanshi’ and her marriage, whose video rights have been apparently sold to an OTT platform.
Love
Real-life love struck Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani, and Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnani.
Music
Film music continued to decline in importance and calibre. ‘Shershaah’ became the top streaming album (Sony Music) and there was an overdose of Punjabi folk and re-created classics.
New born
Vamika, Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli’s daughter, Saif-Kareena’s son Jehangir, Neha Dhupia-Angad’s and Preity Zinta’s twins Gia and Jai were born.
OTT
The OTT platforms not only competed with theatres but gave anchor to movies stuck financially. They also encouraged niche stories such as ‘Rashmi Rocket’.
Patriotism
‘Sooryavanshi’, ‘Bell Bottom’ and ‘Shershaah’ proved that well-made patriotic films could be hits. Brand India was also ‘promoted’ in some other movies.
Qismat
That Qismat (destiny) was supreme was proved by the fact that ‘Sooryavanshi’ waited for the right moment to hit the big-screen: the scheduled April 2020 release became a blockbuster in Diwali 2021!
Remakes
Remakes (from Indian or international films) were endemic: like ‘Tadap’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Dhamaka’, ‘Antim’, ‘Aafat-e-Ishq’ and ‘Mimi’.
Sequels
Sequels continued sans success (‘Satyameva Jayate 2’, ‘Hungama 2’, ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’). The prequel, ‘Bob Biswas’ (to ‘Kahaani’) did reasonably well on OTT.
T-Series
T-Series not only grabbed the maximum music rights but also co-produced 13 films — emerging as the biggest producers of the year.
Upcoming films
The cream of forthcoming films include Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathan’, Salman Khan’s ‘Tiger 3’, Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, Ranveer Singh’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’, SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Ram Setu’ and Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Fighter’.
Vicky Kaushal
This unlikely star became the most talked-about for his wedding to Katrina Kaif and performance in ‘Sardar Udham’.
Weddings
Rajkummar Rao-Patralekhaa, Yami Gautam and director Aditya Dhar, Dia Mirza-businessman Vaibhav Rekhi), Rhea Kapoor-Karan Boolani, director Ali Abbas Zafar-Alicia and actors Aditya Seal-Anushka Ranjan tied the knot.
Xmas release
This peak release date will see ‘83’ with Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev in a re-creation of India’s historic 1983 World Cup win.
Young blood
Ahan Shetty (‘Tadap’), Sharvari and — as lead — Siddhant Chaturvedi (‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’) and Pratik Gandhi (‘Bhavai’) made successful debuts. Rinzing Denzongpa (‘Squad’) was unlucky—his debut film was atrocious.
Zero
Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor and Varun Dhawan had zero releases.