2009: Bollywood Controversies

Like in the past, in 2009 too Bollywood was buzzing with controversies and scandals. From Shiney Ahuja's arrest in a rape case to Shah Rukh Khan's detention at a US airport, there was as much action happening off the screen as on it. Here's looking back at some of the people and events that kept the Bollywood cauldron simmering.

June 14, 2009: It was by far the biggest Bollywood scandal of the year. All hell broke loose after actor Shiney Ahuja was detained and later arrested for allegedly raping his 19-year-old domestic help at his Andheri residence. Shiney, who has acted in films like Hazaroon Khwaishe Aishi and Gangster, is currently out on bail after spending 110 days in jail.

Strict conditions have been imposed on the actor by Justice AP Deshpande of the Bombay High Court, who has ordered Shiney to live outside Mumbai, but not leave India till his trial begins in a fast-track court in Mumbai. On two occasions, lower courts in Mumbai had rejected Shiney's bail application and he had been lodged in the Arthur Road Jail where Pakistani terror accused Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab is also lodged.
,br> If the charges against him are proved in court, Shiney faces a seven-year jail sentence. His wife Anupam and his lawyer have maintained that he is innocent and is being framed. Some reports hinting at consensual sex also surfaced, making the matter murkier.

August 15, 2009: It was an incident that provoked the collective outrage of a nation. Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan was reportedly interrogated for over two hours after American immigration officials spotted the 'Khan' in his name. He was allowed to go only after Indian Embassy officials vouched for him.

The actor was on his way to Chicago to attend a function to mark India's Independence Day when the incident took place at Newark airport.

Ironically it was a case of life imitating art for Shah Rukh whose forthcoming film My Name is Khan also has a similar plot. In the film he plays Rizwan Khan, a Muslim in San Francisco, who is arrested and detained when authorities mistake his disability for "suspicious" behaviour.

While there were widespread protests in India against Shah Rukh's detention, actor Salman Khan dismissed the matter as trivial: "It is not such a big deal, when we go there we too have to go through the security check. There have been no attacks there since 9/11 because of their stringent security measures. I think it is a good thing (the security)," Salman was quoted as saying. Shah Rukh himself tried to play down the incident upon his return to the country and said he wasn't seeking an apology from American officials.

June 5, 2009: The row between Bollywood producers and multiplex owners over revenue sharing ended two months after producers and distributors decided not to push any new releases in multiplexes on April 4. The standoff reportedly led to losses of over Rs 300 crore for the industry, and audiences had to make do with reruns and old releases.

Trouble began in February over revenue sharing. While the producers demanded a flat 50 percent share of all film revenues irrespective of the stars, budget and box office collection, the exhibitors stressed on sharing profits based on the earnings of a film.

According to the final settlement, 50, 42, 35 and 30 per cent for the first, second, third and fourth week respectively for all movies will be shared between the two parties. Interestingly, the dispute brought together Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan on the same platform in April.

Both actors advocated a partnership of equality. "It should be a partnership of equality. Fifty percent sharing is fair. Distributors and exhibitors have to find a way to make it a viable business within their fifty percent. Within my fifty percent I have to make it profitable," Aamir said at the press conference that also had industry veterans like Ronnie Screwvala, Mukesh Bhatt and Karan Johar, among others. "We are here for fair rights for Friday nights," Shah Rukh asserted.

March 30, 2009: It was meant to add a naughty zip to the Lakme Fashion Week, but Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar's gesture asking wife Twinkle Khanna to unzip his jeans during the show has led to a police complaint against him for alleged obscenity. A female model was to unzip the 41-year-old as he walked the ramp at Tarun Tahiliani's Levi's show in Mumbai on March 30, but Akshay decided to let his wife do the honours instead.

Although Akki later apologised for the act, both he and his wife were arrested under section 294 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code for alleged obscene behaviour.

They were later released on bail. According to reports, Akshay is miffed with Anil Naik, who filed a case against him and his wife Twinkle for obscene behaviour in public. Naik had earlier filed similar obscenity complaints against Milind Soman, Madhu Spare and Mamta Kulkarni.

April 2009: The film industry was agog with tales of Hrithik Roshan and wife Suzanne Khan splitting, ostensibly because of the actor's growing affinity to his 'Kites' co-star, Mexican actress Barbara Mori. Hrithik rubbished the reports, claiming he was having 'a picnic' with Suzanne and their kids.

A leading Mumbai tabloid reported that Hrithik and his wife had parted ways when she had moved to her parents' house. 'It is too funny! Yes, Suzanne shifted to her parents' place with the kids two days ago and I was to join her on my return as there is a white ant treatment going on in my house and a section of my floor is being renovated. I'm with Suzanne right now having a picnic with my wife, kids and in-laws,' Hrithik said in a press release.

Later in the year, the couple made an appearance at the HDIL India Couture Week in October. Any lingering doubts about trouble in the Roshan household were laid to rest as Suzanne blew kisses to her husband while walking the ramp for her sister and jewellery designer Farah Khan.

May 2009: Trouble erupted after maverecik filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma twisted the words of the Indian national anthem 'Jana gana mana' to 'Jana gana mana Rann' for his forthcoming film Rann, starring Amitabh Bachchan. Varma, known for courting controversies, defended his right to adapt Rabindranath Tagore's composition for his film: "I have not tinkered with the national anthem.

Tinkering would be if I would have shown it in bad light. I haven't done anything of this sort.

Through this song, we are talking about the disputes in the country but there were no intentions to ridicule anything." While the censor board instructed Varma to refrain from telecasting the promo with the 'Jana gana mana Rann' track, producers Madhu Mantena and Sheetal Vinod Talwar had registered a civil case in the Mumbai High Court against the board's ruling.

In December Ramu announced his decision to defuse the controversy by replacing the Rann song. "There was no point defending the song on and on. Enough noise was being made and it was best to replace it with something else and move on. I can now say that the entire controversy is pretty much left behind," Varma said. The filmmaker has chosen to replace 'Jana Gana Mana Rann' with 'Vande Mataram' in the final cut and said that the track will play in the background.

Varma insisted he wasn't courting fresh trouble by exchanging the national anthem for the national song: "Not at all. What we have used of 'Vande Mataram' are just these two words. I don't see anything controversial in this since it stands for 'Bow to thee, Mother'. Tell me, what's wrong in using that?"

May 2009: Sonam Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai are brand ambassadors for the same cosmetics giant, and that, it seems, is the only thing common between them. Days after the fiasco where Sonam made comments regarding Ash's appeal, the rivalry between the two Bollywood beauties took a turn for the worse. According to some reports, Sonam was invited to walk the red carpet at Cannes with Ash, 'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria and Hollywood star Michelle Yeoh at the premiere of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's latest offering Broken Embraces, but she was prevented from going to Cannes by her older rival who did not fancy sharing the limelight.

With two of their brand ambassadors seemingly at loggerheads, the cosmetics giant was forced to make a statement clarifying their decision to hold back Sonam from going for Cannes: "We do not want to take part in or encourage any controversy involving our spokespeople. There were adverse reports in certain sections of media after some comments by Sonam Kapoor, which were presented out of context. Following this, in order to avoid further escalation, we have advised Sonam not to go to Cannes as was planned earlier, bearing in mind that there would be more interesting opportunities for future appearances in Europe for her." Sources close to Ash also issued statements to the press, claiming the 'Bachchan Bahu' had nothing to do with Sonam's Cannes debacle.

"She (Aishwarya) did not even know that Sonam was going to be at Cannes because she was there for just two days (May 13-14) where her days were packed with back-to-back interactions with the international media, fashion shoots for various European fashion magazines and other business meetings besides attending all the events at the festival," a source was quoted as saying. "Anyone can go to the Cannes Film Festival as a visitor and that is how many in the film fraternity and normal public go from across the world."

November 2009: Veteran actor Om Puri found himself in the eye of a storm after his wife Nandita Puri highlighted his sexual life in her biography 'Unlikely Hero: The Story of Om Puri'. Puri was believed to have taken strong exception to Nandita talking about his sexual encounters with his 55-year-old maid Santi at the age of 14. Nandita, a journalist by profession, also wrote about his affair with another maid Lakshmi, whom he even wanted to marry.

There were even more shocking revelations in store. Her husband, Nandita claimed, was sexually molested at the age of 6. Later, in an exclusive interview to NDTV.com at a function organised to release his biography at the 40th International Film Festival of India in Goa, denied that the controversy over it was a stage-managed publicity stunt. In a departure from his earlier stance, the actor defended his wife in no uncertain terms, instead blaming the media for blowing things out of proportion.

"They gave the impression that this biography is a scurrilous, sensational piece of writing. Believe me, it is anything but that. The focus on my personal life is only a small part of the book. With this book, my wife has stripped me bare and I enjoyed being stripped by her. The controversy was a result of a misunderstanding. I assure you that it wasn t a publicity stunt that my wife and I decided to orchestrate in order to sell the book," he said.

February 2009: Controversy erupted early in the year when Sukhwinder Singh and Gulzar failed to make an appearance at the Oscars ceremony where the song 'Jai Ho' from 'Slumdog Millionaire' made history for India. Despite some pointing fingers at AR Rahman for the fiasco, Sukhwinder, who was supposed to perform live with the music maestro at Kodak Theatre, refused to take the bait.

"Yes it is true that I did not receive any official intimation from there and therefore I could not make it to the event. I don't know what went wrong. Rahman and I are like brothers and he is not responsible for this. In fact, he was the one who insisted on my performance at the event. Somewhere, someone must have goofed up but I don't know who is responsible for it," he was quoted as saying.

Slumdog Millionaire child stars Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail kept making news throughout the year, mostly for the wrong reasons. In April, a London newspaper reported that Rubina's father tried to sell her off to undercover reporters posing as rich Middle East couple.

'News of the World' published a story claiming its investigators met Rubina's father and uncle in a Mumbai hotel and tried to negotiate a deal for illegal adoption. According to the report, Rubina's father Rafiq Qureshi demanded $400,000 to sell his daughter off, saying she is now special as an 'Oscar child'.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV.com, Rubina denied the story: "It's true that I went to the hotel with my father and my uncle Rajan. We met a madam there who was unable to speak in Hindi. She had a secretary who was doing all the talking. They told my father they want to adopt me but my father didn't agree to the proposition." Soon afterwards, both Rubina and Azhar lost their homes during ongoing demolition drives in Mumbai. "I'm feeling bad," Rubina said.

"My house had been demolished. I'm thinking about where to sleep." Just days earlier, Rubina's 10-year-old co-star in the Oscar-winning film, was asleep when a police officer woke him up and told him to leave his family's home. The shack was later pulled down.

In October, Rubina and Azhar's troubled relationship with the makers of Slumdog Millionaire hit a new low with director Danny Boyle insisting that the children were playing truant from school and were in danger of losing their monthly stipends if they did not mend their ways. "It's pathetic," said Jai Ho fund trustee Noshir Dadrawala, who blamed the children's busy schedules for their chronic truancy. "They are constantly going to Paris and Cochin and Chennai," he said.

"That's fine, but go over the weekend, not at the sacrifice of school." However the end of the year finally brought some good news for the kids. Both Rubina and Azhar have reportedly enrolled full-time in a school and are living in far better conditions. While Azhar has moved with his family into a flat in the Santa Cruz area of Mumbai, Rubina and her family are still in the Garib Nagar slum but have upgraded their home and are waiting to be moved into a modern apartment.

January 14, 2009: While on the subject of 'Slumdog', sparks flew when Amitabh Bachchan apparently slammed the Oscar-winning film in his blog. "If SM ('Slumdog Millionaire') projects India as Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations," Amitabh wrote in a posting on his blog from Paris, France.

"It's just that the 'Slumdog Millioanire' idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a westerner, gets creative global recognition," he added. Following strong protests from different quarters, including filmmamkers like Shekhar Kapur and Kunal Kohli, Bachchan wrote in his blog that it had never been his intention to criticise 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

"What a colossal joke this is all turning out to be! Without reading the text of my blog or the purpose behind mention of Slumdog an entire machinery of abuse has been directed towards me. Fact is - someone mentioned the film on my blog. Some expressed opinion for it, some against. And yes, they contained some strong assumptions. I merely put both of them up and invited debate," he wrote.

November 11, 2009: There was bad news for filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar after a Mumbai court ruled that he would stand trial for allegedly raping model-turned-actress Priti Jain, five years after her complaint to the police. The court's ruling came after it held that the first information report (FIR) Priti Jain filed against Bhandarkar was not false, as he had contended, Priti's counsel Sushan Kunjuraman said.

The aspiring actress had in her complaint to the police in 2004 alleged that Bhandarkar and she "had sex 16 times between 1999 and 2004". "Madhur had promised to give me a lead role in his films. However, he didn't offer me a lead role in any of his movies. At times when I refused, he raped me," she alleged in her complaint then.

Bhandarkar made three films in the five years since he knew Priti - Chandni Bar, Satta and Aan - and she complained that she had no role in any of them. "Bhandarkar's forthcoming movie, Page 3, also does not feature me," she had told reporters soon after filing her case. Priti also claimed that Bhandarkar had promised to marry her and make her a star. (In this picture Bhandarkar is seen with actress Mugdha Godse)

June 2009: Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker caused some heartburn with his comments on Priyanka Chopra being the not-so-deserving winner of the Best Actress award for her her performance in 'Fashion' at the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) (awards) in Macau. "Priyanka, you are a very hardworking actress but I was just discussing with Jayaji why Aishwarya did not get the best actress award," Gowariker said when he came on stage to collect best director award for Jodhaa Akbar from Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya.

While Gowariker's outburst was deried by many in the film industry as childish and impulsive, what really raised the heckles was his mention of Jaya Bachchan on stage to substantiate his public objection. Priyanka, the leading lady of Gowariker's film What's Your Rashee?, was reportedly so upset with the director that she stayed away from the after-party at Abhi-Ash's suite.

Madhur Bhandarkar, the director of Fashion made his displeasure plain to the media: "I'm shocked by what Ashutosh had to say. We're friends and I admire his work. More than us, our wives are very close friends. If he felt this way he should've shared it with me and Priyanka, not spoil the golden moment for her on stage. Priyanka got every popular award. Doesn't that prove she deserves it?"

November 2009: There was some apprehension and a lot of curiosity surrounding a scene in Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail showing frontal nudity by actor Neil Nitin Mukesh. Neil insisted the nude scenes wouldn't be a distraction because the narrative was high on emotional quotient.

"I was asked to strip down completely and the only question before doing the scene that I had in mind was - what would be my parents' reaction when they watch the film? Would they be ashamed of me as their son? But I think they'll be extremely proud of me as an actor to have gone ahead and done it with a lot of courage,' Neil said.

Asked about the controversy over the nude scene, Neil said: "I won't say it is blown out of proportion. It deserves the attention it has been getting because it is for the first time that an actor has gone ahead and done something like this. Though that was not the motive behind it; it was to actually project what really happens inside a jail." But despite the full-monty, Jail sank without a trace at the box office.

November 2009: When the makers of Kurbaan tried to cash in on the popularity of real life couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, perhaps they got much more attention than they had bargained for.

The film's poster, showing a bare-backed Kareena and a topless Saif, was slammed as 'vulgar' by some. Shiv Sena activists in Mumbai tore down the posters, claiming they were 'corrupting the minds of people in the area.'

Both Karan Johar, the film's producer, and Kareena however defended the image. "We will never do anything to offend anyone. I believe the poster is aesthetically right, and so is the film," said Johar. According to Kareena: "This shot of me in a backless posture and Saif with a wound on his chest tell so much about the film's theme. There is love, passion and violence - all combined in here and what better way than to show it through a single still? You too would agree that there is nothing sleazy or vulgar about it. Knowing the sensibilities of Karan Johar (producer) and Rensil D'Silva (director), that's the least one could have expected."

July 2009: Actress Celina Jaitley and yoga guru Baba Ramdev locked horns after the Delhi High Court's landmark decision to end the 145 year-old law declaring homosexuality a crime. Celina, a well-known gay rights activist, took strong exception to the Baba's claims that homosexuality was a 'disease' that he could 'cure' through yoga.

"With all due respects to Baba Ramdev he may have the so called 'cure' but the point is LGBT community does NOT see homosexuality as a disease. People should not be judged on basis of what they do in their bedroom because if it was only about that...some of our taxes would have to be deployed into a special bedroom vigilance force, which I am sure these babas would love to lead," Celina was quoted as saying.

The war of words got ugly, with Baba Ramdev launching an attack on the moral standing of all actresses. "These actresses know nothing about Bhartiya sanskriti. They stay away from their parents and have no morals. Unke partner har mahine badalte hai. (They change partners every month)...", he retorted.

May 2009: Actress Neetu Chandra ran into trouble while shooting some bold pictures for a men's magazine. Neetu, who was shooting for the cover of 'The Man' magazine, along with model Krishikha Gupta outside the lobby of a 3-star hotel in Mumbai, was targeted by protestors. They alleged that the girl pictures were promoting lesbianism. The shoot had to be abandoned midway after the mob threatened to get physical with the crew.

September 13, 2009: The saree is usually considered a safe bet for most women, not so for Mandira Bedi. The audience at the Kolkata Fashion Week got quite an eyeful as the actress, television personality and cricket commentator walked the ramp for Satya Paul in a black zari saree with a low cut blouse.

The reaction was mixed. While some thought Mandira looked stunning, others insisted she was not the right choice to model such a revealing outfit. This is of course not the first time that Mandira has courted trouble in a saree. A few years back she had been forced to apologise for 'inadvertently' wearing a saree on which were printed the National flags of 16 participating countries of the cricket World Cup, including India's.

February 2009: Just days ahead of its release, the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Billu Barber ran into rough weather with the Salon and Beauty Parlour associations launching an agitation against the film's title in which they claimed the use of the word 'Barber' was derogatory.

In deference to the popular sentiments, the word was dropped from the film's title and promotions. Shah Rukh also invited members of The Hairdressers' Association of Mumbai to the premier of Billu in order to assuage their feelings.

October 2009: Filmmaker Karan Johar's Wake Up Sid invited the wrath of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for having used 'Bombay' instead of 'Mumbai'. The incident sent Johar scampering to MNS chief Raj Thackeray's Shivaji Park residence to tender an unconditional apology and also promise to insert an apology-cum-disclaimer at the beginning of the movie within three days.

Later, the Shiv Sena entered the fray by demanding that Johar should apologise to all the 'eight crore Marathis' for the faux pas. "He should tender an apology to all the people of Maharashtra and not to some individual (Raj Thackeray)," said Sena Rajya Sabha parliamentarian Sanjay Raut. Despite the initial hiccup, Wake Up Sid, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma, went on to do good business at the box office.

July 2009: Saif Ali Khan's Love Aaj Kal had members of the Sikh community up in arms. Charanjeet Sapra, President, Punjabi Cultural and Heritage Board said people had objections to Saif's trimmed beard in the film and other romantic scenes shot in the Gurudwara.

This prompted Saif to organise a special screening of the film for members of the Sikh community. The matter was resolved amicably after Saif apologised about the portrayal of his character Veer Singh on screen. Apart from the apology, Saif also agreed to cut 15 seconds of the film that depicted a Sardar visiting the Gurudwara to woo a girl.

"The board had a problem with the film, which was legitimate. The Gurudwara is a place of worship and we should not disrespect that. Even though my film did not try to show disrespect, we will edit the sequence," Saif was quoted as saying. Controversy continued to plague the film even after its release. Pritam, who composed the music of Love Aaj Kal, was accused of copying one of the songs (and its remixed version) from a Punjabi folk song sung by a famous Pakistani singer. The film's music was however a huge hit.

September 2009: Representatives of the Sikh community also had objections to Yashraj Film's 'Dil Bole Hadippa' starring Rani Mukherjee and Shahid Kapur. The Sikh community's objections were twofold. First, they had reservations against Rani's character in the film wearing a patka, since all adult Sikhs are supposed to wear turbans. Patkas are meant only for young boys. Secondly they were upset with the way the title of the film appeared on posters.

The posters showed a 'patka' sign in place of a dot on letter 'I' in the title word 'Hadippa'. YRF moved quickly to appease the Sikh community, even changing the film's logo before its release.

September 2009: Many were shocked by the title of Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminey. But lyricist Gulzar, who suggested it to Bharadwaj, insisted that far from being abusive, it is a term of endearment. "Far from being a negative term kaminey is actually a term of endearment... unless added to kuttey (dog). It's only kuttey kaminey that's used angrily and negatively. When a friend doesn't visit us when he's in town, we call him kamina. The word can be translated as 'mean' in English. Kids say, 'Papa you're mean'. Likewise when a mother says to her son, Kamina kahin ka, she is expressing a love beyond the annoyance visible in the word," he was quoted as saying.

Then, Saif Ali Khan had to come out strongly in support of his mother and censor board chief Sharmila Tagore when it was insinuated that Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminey was given an A rating - restricting viewership - as its lead actor Shahid was once in a relationship with Saif's girlfriend Kareena Kapoor. "It is ridiculous to state that anyone had any personal bias against Kaminey, Saif said in an interview. "Any talk of personal enmity are completely fictional. I don't even know the actual people involved who spread such rumours and frankly I don't care. Such things don't even enter my radar," he added.

But that was not the end of the controversies surrounding Kaminey. The words, 'Teli ka tel', in the hit song 'Dhan Te Nan' from the film had to be replaced by 'Dilli ka tel' following protests by a caste group. The protests over the word, teli, was made by Rashtriya Teli Rathore Chetna Mahasangh to the ministry of I&B and the censor board. They latter took up the matter with filmmaker Bhardwaj prompting the change. Later Bhardwaj also admitted that the song 'Dhan Te Nan' had not been originally composed for Kaminey.

"Dhan te nan was not designed especially for Kaminey. I had first used the catchphrase in a tele film called Dhan te nan," said the director who also composed the music for the film.

October 26, 2009: First it was Shah Rukh Khan who had an unpleasant experience at a US airport, and then it was actor Shahid Kapur's turn to face the heat. While this time there was no 'Khan' in Shahid's name that caught the attention of American immigration officials, it was his spot boy Mohammed Manzoor, also known as Mamu, who was detained at New York airport. Since Mamu has been with the Kapur family for a long time and is not able to converse well in English, Shahid decided to stay back with him and field questions on his behalf.

Mamu and Shahid could leave the airport only after a gruelling 90-minute interrogation session with immigration officials.

August 2009: A kiss landed Shilpa Shetty in trouble...again. Two years back it was Hollywood superstar Richard Gere who sparked a furore by kissing Shilpa at a public function. This time it was a priest at the Sakhigopal temple in Puri, Orissa where the actress had gone to shoot for her upcoming serial Mahayatra.

Clearly ecstatic with the star presence, an elderly priest bestowed her with a peck on the cheek. Last heard, miffed temple authorities had slapped charges on Shilpa for entering the temple with armed guards and camera crew, and for having their shoes on. Some social groups also denounced the kissing incident as 'inappropriate' for a holy place.

September 2009: Julia Roberts' stay in India to shoot for her film Eat, Pray, Love turned controversial with some devotees in the village of Pataudi reportedly upset by her presence after a vast security team of 350 guards sealed off the Ashram Hari Mandir for filming.

Apparently the whole ashram and the Pataudi Palace, where the 41-year-old star stayed with her three children, their nannies, the cast and crew, was 'booked', according to a security officer. "We are not allowed to enter the temple premises. They cannot stop us from worshiping because Julia Roberts is in there," an unnamed resident of Pataudi told the media.

Some organisations also joined the agitation, claiming the shoot should have been better timed to avoid inconvenience to devotees. Although the 'Pretty Woman' star met Swami Dharam Dev of the Hari Mandir Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya ashram and took Hindu names for her three children, it did not wholly dispel the resentment surrounding her visit.

November 1, 2009: The controversy over Amitabh Bachchan buying agricultural land in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh ended when a five-member committee constituted by Barabanki district administration gave a clean chit to the Bollywood superstar.

The committee, headed by a sub-divisional magistrate, in its report, turned down the charges of forgery against Bachchan following which a complaint lodged by son of the Daulatpur village head was quashed. "The committee in its inquiry found that the allegation of fraud against Bachchan was baseless," a senior official said.

On October 23, Bachchan through his representative had transferred 16 bigha land at Daulatpur village to the foundation run by Bollywood actress Jaya Prada for construction of a girls college. Later, a committee had been constituted to inquire into allegations of land fraud. In the meantime, Nishtha Foundation had returned the two plots to Bachchan, after which the filmstar's representative, Rajesh Rishikesh Yadav, submitted a letter stating that Bachchan wished to donate both the plots to gram sabha as proposed by him earlier by completing all the legal formalities. Bachchan's land purchase has been dogged in controversy since he bought it. He was accused of using illegal means to acquire the land.

August 2009: Sameera Reddy, who was in Kuala Lumpur to shoot for the Tamil film Asal with co-star Ajith, had a run-in with the Malaysian Prime Minister's security detail. The actress reportedly picked up a fight with the security personnel after she was manhandled by guards in the hotel where she was staying. The hotel staff managed to defuse the situation before it turned more serious.

August-September 2009: Two of her former boyfriends chose the same television show to take potshots at Aishwarya Rai in 2009. In August Salman Khan was a guest on Farah Khan's talk show Tere Mere Beech Mein. On being asked if he had ever physically assaulted Ash anytime during their relationship, Salman replied that she would not have survived had he done so.

A month later it was Vivek Oberoi's turn to hint at dark details of his affair with Ash while chatting with Farah on the same show. Commenting on his (in)famous late night squabble with Salman and subsequent press conference, Viveik seemed to squarely blame his former lady love for the fiasco: "Uss waqt mere aaspas bahut log the aur woh apni 'RAI' dete the.' (There were many people around me who used to give their opinion). The play on the word 'Rai' (opinion and Ash's last name) was not lost on anyone, and Farah was quick to point it out. "Accha word chunna aapne, 'Rai' (You choose a good word 'Rai').

Although Viveik tried to retrieve the situation by amending his words "Mashwarra dete the and I went by their word" (They used to give advice...), by then the cat was already out of the bag. Viveik went on to say that he had been deeply hurt when people whom he trusted didn't stand by him in the hour of need. Ash reportedly broke down on the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish, upset that people refused to leave her alone despite the fact that she had moved on in life.