Aryan Khan’s directorial debut The Ba***ds of Bollywood seems to take a subtle ‘dig’ at former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede with fans highlighting similarities between a particular scene in the Netflix series and Wankhede’s handling of Aryan’s 2021 drug case.
Released on Thursday, the series is billed as a multi-genre project that revolves around a struggling actor, Aasmaan Singh (played by Lakshya), who navigates the chaotic, larger-than-life, yet uncertain world of Bollywood.
In a scene of the first episode, an officer arrives at a rave party, arresting a Bollywood figure over a drink, while ignoring a non-celebrity who is caught smoking a joint.
This sparked comparisons to Aryan Khan’s 2021 drug case, where he was detained by Wankhede. Soon after the series was released, social media platforms were rife with speculation about the scene’s inspiration.
One X user wrote, “Aryan Khan literally played here by casting a Sameer Wankhede lookalike in the Bads of Bollywood.”
“The Sameer Wankhede cameo in The Bads*** of Bollywood is too good, lol, iykyk,” reads another post.
Aryan Khan, along with Ayaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, was arrested by NCB on Oct 3, 2021, for alleged drug possession during a cruise ship raid. Twenty people had been arrested in the case.
However, all charges against him were later dropped in May 2022, and NCB’s Sameer Wankhede was removed from the case amid blackmail allegations.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood is generating buzz on social media already, with fans praising its engaging storytelling, direction, and impressive cameos.
Apart from the cameos of the Khans, the show also has special appearances by Bollywood stars like Ranbir Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Shanaya Kapoor, Disha Patani, Karan Johar and Emraan Hashmi.
One social media user wrote, “Just finished THE BADS OF BOLLYWOOD. So much fun, great cameos & that twist was amazing! Big praise to director Aryan, he really made it special for us.”
Bobby Deol, Sahher Bambba, Manav Chauhan, Mona Singh, Raghav Juyal and Anyaa Singh round off the cast of the series, produced by Bonnie Jain and Gauri Khan under Shah Rukh’s home banner, Red Chillies Entertainment.