HonA- Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai’s relationship became the talk of the town as their separation rumours did the rounds for the better part of the year. They were fuelled when Aishwarya made an appearance with daughter Aaradhya Bachchan at the Ambani wedding, separately from the rest of the Bachchan family. However, in December, the couple got together for a wedding as well as Aaradhya’s annual function, putting a dent in the rumours.
B- Baldoni vs Lively: Actor-director Justin Baldoni promoting It Ends With Us, separately from lead actor Blake Lively led to rumours of a feud between them, which were solidified recently when Blake filed a sexual harassment case against Justin.
C- Credit war for Stree 2 success became a topic of debate after the film became a blockbuster. What many termed as a ‘PR campaign gone wrong’, a section online credited the success of the film to actor Shraddha Kapoor, while another section rallied behind actor Rajkummar Rao. Other actors from the film, including Abhishek Bannerjee and Aparshakti Khurana also gave in their take in the whole discussion.
D- Diljit Dosanjh became a global sensation this year, even making his debut appearance at The Jimmy Kimmel Show. However, his Dilluminati tour in India faced several troubles as in cities like Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, petitions were filed by the government to ban him from singing songs on alcohol and drugs.
E- Entourage cost became a hot topic of discussion this year as many filmmakers, including Karan Johar, called out the actors today for raising a project’s production cost by bringing a full entourage of people with them, without considering the financials of the project.
F- Facing death threats: Actor Salman Khan got death threats from gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, with even shots being fired outside his Bandra (Mumbai) home in April. The threats continued for a long time with security also heightened for him, and his friend and politician Baba Siddiqui being assassinated. Actor Shah Rukh Khan also received death threats consequently, raising security concerns.
G- Gukesh D became a national sensation by emerging the youngest World Chess Champion as he defeated the reigning winner, Ding Liren from China this month.
H- Honey Singh reignited his feud with Badshah as he took a dig at his writing capabilities. He had also dissed the rapper in an interview and recently, accused Badshah of abusing and mocking his illness.
I- India’s Got Latent is all that the nation has been talking about in the last few months. A parody on talent shows with a unique scoring system, comedian Samay Raina’s new IP became an online rage amassing tens of millions of views and catapulting many contestants’ career.
J- Jigra released amid much hype in October, but the Alia Bhatt starrer was marred with controversies, with the biggest being actor Divya Khossla calling the box office collections ‘fake’ and the film a ‘copy’ of her film Savi. She engaged in a social media war with filmmaker Karan Johar too.
K- Kusha Kapila’s roast on comedian Ashish Solanki’s show came in limelight as Samay Raina’s jokes on her had to be cut from the final edit due to their severe nature. Later, Kusha came out and spoke about feeling belittled by Samay’s comments and even blocked him social media.
L- Luigi Mangione is currently on trial as the primary accused in the murder of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson. While he plead not guilty, he received support from a large section of women, owing to his good looks and charm. Many even termed him modern day Ted Bundy.
M- Malayalam Industry’s dark truth got revealed in the Justice Hema Committee report. It disclosed details of the unsafe work environment on film sets there with many female actors coming out and speaking up about their harrowing experiences. The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists dissolved its entire executive committee after it, including actor Mohanlal resigning as the president.
N- Nayanthara and Dhanush got into a legal tussle over the former’s documentary, Nayanthata: Beyond The Fairytale. Dhanush filed a suit against her for using a three-second BTS footage from their 2015 film Naanum Rowdy Dhaan. She issued an open letter against him on Instagram, while the legal battle still ensues.
O- Oscar battle between All We Imagine As Light and Laapataa Ladies took many twists and turns this year. Even though the former won Grand Prix award, the second highest honour at Cannes Film Festival, and was considered a frontrunner for being India’s official entry to Oscars 2025, Laapataa Ladies was chosen as the eventual entry. Although, it failed to make it to the shortlist, personalities like Hansal Mehta and Ricky Kej called out Film Federation of India for their decision.
P- Pushpa 2: The Rule broke all the box office records, inaugurating the ₹700 crore club in the Hindi box office collections. But actor Allu Arjun ran in legal trouble owing to his spontaneous appearance at the film’s premiere in Hyderabad resulted in a stampede that led to the death of a 35-year-old woman and her nine-year-old son getting severely injured.
Q- Queues of concert tickets online for acts like Coldplay and Diljit Dosanjh reached to unimaginable high numbers, leading many to call out poor management. It also raised the issue of ticket scalping with tickets worth ₹6000 being sold at prices as high as over a lakh.
R- Rahman-Banu divorce: Musician AR Rahman ended his marriage of 29 years with wife Saira Banu by announcing the news on social media. However, his bassist Mohini Dey also announced her separation with her husband a few hours before that, leading to rumours of an affair between her and Rahman. Mohini and Saira both came out to support Rahman and called the allegations baseless.
S- Success of re-releases this year set a new precedent as while new releases struggled to bring in the audience, films like Laila Majnu (2018) and Tumbbad (2018) enjoyed a successful second run in theatres. Both the films crossed their original lifetime collection, with the latter even performing better than many new releases, collecting over ₹25 crores.
T- The T20 World Cup victory for India set the stage for a perfect half year celebration as the nation brought home their second title in the format, defeating South Africa in the final. The win also became a bit bittersweet as Virat Kohil, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from the format internationally post the win.
U- Unity in the South was on full display as the industry gathered to support ex-couple Samantha and Naga Chaitanya after politician Konda Surekha made a controversial statement about their divorce. Not just the ex-couple but many South actors called out the politician for her irresponsible statement.
V- Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the Paris Olympics 2024 led to a heartbreak of the entire nation as she weighed 100 grams over her weight range on the morning of her gold medal bout. The wrestler filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a joint silver medal, but it was rejected.
W- Wedding of the century was hosted by the Ambanis as Anant Ambani got married to Radhika Merchant. The couple hosted a pre-wedding extravaganza in Jamnagar, Gujarat in March, followed by a cruise in May and then the final wedding festivities in July. It saw the biggest personalities from across the globe in attendance, including Kim Kardashian, John Cena, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and more.
X- X-Men finally merged with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) this year with Deadpool and Wolverine. Hugh Jackman returned to play his famous superhero character alongside Ryan Reynolds, with the storyline merging with the multiverse aspect of the MCU, thus setting the stage for a bigger combined universe.
Y- Year of on-stage collaborations: From Diljit Dosanjh joining Ed Sheeran, to Hanumankind uniting with Karan Aujlla and AP Dhillon, Honey Singh and Jazzy B setting the stage on fire together, the year 2024 saw some of the biggest on-stage collaborations in the Indian music scene.
Z- Zakir Hussain passed away earlier this month due to complications arising from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease. The tabla maestro was a celebrated figure in Indian music and even won three grammy awards this year.