In the year 2020, the Indian media and entertainment industry had a tough time, thanks to the precarious godforsaken phenomenon called Coronavirus. While the world was confined behind four walls and major activities almost froze, here’s out list of scandals and controversies that hit us hard.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s death: Poor Pritam Chakraborty! Henceforth every year his birthday will be a day of national mourning. Henceforth the Indian entertainment industry will be evaluated as before and after June 14. Sushant’s death shook the conscience of the nation. The Nation wants to know why Sushant died. Even Karan Johar doesn’t have an answer to that. And believe me, he knows EVERYTHING that goes on in the industry.
Deaths: The industry also was left heartbroken with many leaving us and entering the gates of heaven. Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput to Ashiesh Roy to many more, their loss left all misty-eyed.
Arnab Goswami Goes To Jail: Another scandal hit media business big time when Arnab (the nation wants to know) Goswami went to jail for…what was it? TRP rigging? Abetment to suicide? Bad acting? Whatever the charges, he came out a national hero chanting Vande Mataram like a true freedom fighter. Rumours that Manoj Kumar wants to make a comeback with Upkar 2 featuring Arnab in the lead are false. For now.
Bollywood Gets Drugged Into A Controversy: Are our stars charsis and ganjeris? Do they think they are real-life heroes with heroin? What’s cocaine in their kitchen? As the Deepikas and Shraddhas marched into interrogation, the Narcotics Control Bureau suddenly became famous. Hum to mashoor huey tere pyar mein….
The Mythological Explosion: The one thing that Covid did was to make all Indians extremely devout and pious. Ramanand Sagar, God rest his soul, would have been pleased to know that his long-buried Ramayan was a superhit. Suddenly Arun Govil and Deepika Chikhalia were doing more interviews in 2020 than Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. B R Chopra’s Mahabharat also scored bigtime among the newly Covid cleansed and converted communities. Thanks to no new content being put on air due to Corona restrictions over shooting. Re-runs ruled.
The Power Of Web: Covid gave the OTT platforms the kind of boost that hooch got after Bihar went dry. It was clearly the biggest winner of 2020 (not counting Flipkart and Amazon) with viewership and sales hitting sky-high as theatre owners sulked seethed and simply shriveled up. We now wait for the day when Netflix India would be comparable with Netflix abroad. Big movies and stars all lined up for release in OTT.
IPL Goes Videshi: IPL, the biggest cricketing extravaganza, sailed out of the country to conduct the series. Kudos to Sourav Ganguly and company for pulling off a stunner, minus the audience of course.
The Nepotism Debate: Bollywood was hit again by the strong Tsunami of nepotism debate. Post Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, netizens blamed Bollywood of favouring the few and even called for banning films featuring stars from filmy clans.
TikTok Ban: TikTok, the short-form video content, was a rage and it went on to democratise content at the mass level. Till, it was slapped with a ban, leading to many mimicking the format, but failing to create similar waves. Still many await for its return.
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