MOST SHOCKING BREAK-UP
Bipasha Basu and John Abraham
The It couple of Bollywood met on the sets of their debut film Jism and fell in love instantly. Nine years later, the sturdiest couple called it quits. Apparently, Abraham's marriage-shy stand after nearly a decade of togetherness didn't go down well with the siren. While Basu jumped on a treadmill to get over him and used the expansive shoulders of her co-stars Rana Daggubati and Josh Hartnett to cry on, Abraham is rumoured to be dating US-based investment banker Priya Marwah.
DRAMA QUEEN OF THE YEAR
Pakistani starlet Veena Malek courted controversy after appearing nude on the cover of the Indian edition of FHM magazine with the initials of the ISI (normally a reference to Pakistan's security agency) stencilled on her arm. While she accused the magazine of doctoring the image and is busy suing the magazine, she courted yet another controversy when she suddenly disappeared. She surfaced a day later saying that she was merely resting in her hotel room in Mumbai. Religious extremist groups in Pakistan are also gunning for her life. "Well, I cannot stop anyone from thinking what they do. All I can say is that I am not capable of two publicity stunts in a time span of 15 days," she said.
THE BASH THAT ROCKED
The F1 after-party hosted by Arjun Rampal in Greater Noida. The guest list included Lady Gaga, Shah Rukh Khan, Gauri Khan, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Preity Zinta, Imran Khan, Anil Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, among others.
THE BASH THAT DIDN'T REALLY ROCK
Bollywood A-listers gave hotel heiress Paris Hilton's welcome party a miss when she came to India to launch her handbags. Hosted by socialite Queenie Dhody at a plush club in Mumbai, the party saw stars such as Kangna Ranaut and Sushmita Sen.
THE RUMOUR THAT REFUSED TO DIE DOWN
Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka
Her admiration for King Khan is well-documented and he is an ace at maintaining the perfect family man image. But his image received a blow of sorts when several reports surfaced about his increasing closeness to Priyanka. While some believe it could be a publicity stunt to promote their thriller Don 2, the incident at Khan's private party (where SRK's best friend's wife Mehr Jessia allegedly reprimanded him for inviting Chopra into his home) is not helping to keep a lid on it.
THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF THE YEAR
Azad Rao Khan
While all eyes were on Ash's child, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao gently introduced their son Azad Rao Khan. Born through surrogacy in December at a Mumbai hospital, this remains Bollywood's best-guarded secret and wins the no-frills baby crown.
THE PATCH-UP OF THE YEAR
Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra
For the past four years, the two were not on talking terms. If rumours are to be believed, they had a fallout when Khan recommended his then girlfriend Katrina Kaif for a film project that was originally offered to Chopra. But the two buried the hatchet this month at Riteish Deshmukh's birthday bash. According to insiders, Chopra - who announced on a popular chat show that she had no idea why Khan had suddenly grown cold towards her - walked up to Khan and hugged him. The two chatted for over an hour, say onlookers.
THE QUICKEST LINK-UP
Again the credit here goes to Abraham who was spotted with a Bollywood outsider and investment banker Priya Marwah shortly after his break-up with Bipasha Basu. The latest buzz doing the rounds is that the Bollywood hunk is all set to get engaged to Marwah in April and have a 2013 wedding.
VICTIM OF THE YEAR
While the world rejoiced over Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's pregnancy, there was one person who couldn't digest this brand new piece of information. Award-winning director Madhur Bhandarkar — who had signed on Rai Bachchan for his dream project Heroine — cried foul and accused her of keeping her pregnancy a secret and wasting his time and resources.
"The entire event would not have taken place if on the onset the actress would have informed the state of her health.... The truth was hidden from us," tweeted Bhandarkar. But all's well now. Kareena Kapoor has stepped into Rai Bachchan's role for a whopping Rs80 million (Dh5.51 million).
In the world of Twitter: Catty tweet of the year
Minnisha Lamba Vs Shobhaa De
In May, a war broke out on Twitter between columnist De and starlet Lamba after the latter was intercepted by the customs department for undeclared jewellery worth Rs50 lakhs. She was returning from Cannes after attending the premiere of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris at the festival. Check out their caustic exchange:
DE: "Poor Minissha: Lamba race ki ghodi or lame duck? Warning to other Bollywood wannabes to leave those borrowed rocks at home. Dazzle wt yr talent (sic)."
LAMBA: Ms De, real writers write books. Slandering on #Twitter is a job of the less gifted. ‘Dazzle with your talent' Ms.De, Not ur slander ;) (sic)"
Slanderous tweet of the year
Bheja Fry actress Bhairavi Goswami rant on twitter after learning about Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's pregnancy:
"Nauseating 2 read superstars givg interviews abt wanting a girl baby whn she has gone 2 Bangkok to an IVF clinic which specializes in boy babies. Height of hypocrisy. They knw damn well it's a boy, aftr alls he to produce a male heir at any cost. Typical UP mentality, no wonder that state has such high female foeticide [sic]"
It's about time tweet:
Uday Chopra's dramatic tweet about his retirement from films. But our guess is that no one was reaching for tissues here:
‘Ok confession time...Dhoom 3 is my swan song...my last film...no I'm not giving up acting...quite the opposite, acting is giving up on me!' he tweeted.
In February, Bipasha Basu puts a snapshot on twitter that displayed a picture of her boot-clad feet with two young girls bending over to tie her shoelaces. Her twitter message that accompanied the image did not help her cause as she was bombarded by a barrage of comments about child labour.
"I need to learn to tie shoe laces ASAP! Embarassed that I can't! No patience.. grrrrr! Promise I am not spoilt! Will learn soon," tweeted Basu and tagged it with the picture.
She hastily deleted the tweet and pulled down that recriminating photo with an apologetic tweet about those girls being her sister and her best friend. But the damage was done.
