FILMI FIREWORKS

THE HRITHIK-KANGANA DIRTY PICTURE

It first took Bollywood by storm last year. But it’s only in 2017 that the industry’s biggest scandal in recent times has set off some crazy fireworks. The very public face-off between Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut spilled into ‘OMG!’ territory when Kangana, in the run-up to the release of her September flop Simran, accused Hrithik of using his influence to hush up the police investigation the two are part of. For those who came in late, the Bolly ‘Queen’ had alleged that the Krrish superhero dumped her unceremoniously after a seven-year-long clandestine affair. She also said that he had invaded her personal space and accused him of intimidation; he shot back with the allegation that she “imagines things”, had “stalked” him and sent him “absurd mails”. The two then sent a couple of legal notices to each other, but things went hush-hush after that. Last month, Kangana’s explosive interviews — in which she again accused Hrithik of lying and intimidation —  prompted the actor to go on the offensive. After zipping up for long, Hrithik has now appeared in a series of TV interviews and launched a full-frontal attack on Kangana — from making her personal emails public to claiming that he’s “never met her one-on-one”. Some in Bollywood — Farhan Akhtar to Sonam Kapoor, Karan Johar to Yami Gautam — have rallied around Hrithik publicly, but the jury is still out on who is lying and who is not. For now, brace for Round 3 from Kangana.

LA LA LAND! NO, IT’S MOONLIGHT!

Hands down the biggest goof-up in Oscar history. Jaws dropped — at Los Angeles’s Dolby Theatre (above) and on billions of TV screens across the world — when Moonlight was awarded the Best Picture statuette minutes after La La Land was declared the winner. Speeches were read out and ‘Thank yous’ made by Team La La Land before it was discovered that presenter Warren Beatty (left) had been handed the wrong card! 

RANBIR-MAHIRA SMOKE ’N’ FIRE

Last month, gossip mills went into overdrive when pictures of Bollywood throb Ranbir Kapoor and Pakistani actress Mahira Khan sharing a smoke outside a hotel in New York went viral. The stars — particularly Mahira, who made her Bolly debut with Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees early this year — were trolled mercilessly, reigniting talk that the two were in a relationship. The smoke that led to the fire? A behind-the-scenes video taken surreptitiously at a Dubai event (inset) in March that showed the two having an animated conversation. RK and MK have denied an affair, but something tells us this won’t be stubbed out so easily.

BRAD BLAMES IT ON BOOZE

Their sudden split after years of togetherness shocked fans in 2016. However, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — in a relationship for 11 years and married for two — refused to comment on what had caused the rift. It was only in an interview to GQ this May that Pitt admitted it was his “boozing” problem that had caused the split. Will Brad and Angelina become Brangelina again? Sure doesn’t look like it.

SUNNY & DIMPLE’S HAND-IN-HAND

They’ve been linked from the ’80s — ever since they did films like Manzil Manzil and Arjun together — but a September video of Sunny Deol and Dimple Kapadia holding hands and chatting on a London kerb set tongues wagging. While the two have kept mum about the viral video, Dimple’s daughter Twinkle Khanna and son-in-law Akshay Kumar were sadly trolled for it on social media.