RADIO SARGAM REPORT: THE NEWS MAKERS OF 2004!

Its been another hectic year for Bollywood. Whilst newcomers and stugglers have turned to the media with sleazy scandals to gain cheap publicity - even the superstars of the industry have not avoided controversy. So which industry folk have grabbed the most headlines in 2004? Radio Sargam takes a look...

Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya has graced a large number of magazine covers (both Indian and international) and witnessed limited success with her first English language film Bride and Prejudice, which topped the British box office charts. Aishwarya also attracted bizarre levels of criticism - some fair and some unjust - although this time around she hasn't kept quiet about feeling victimised.

Kareena Kapoor
Bollywood's self confessed diva has starred in a variety of releases – Chameli, Aitraaz, Yuva, Hulchul and Fida. Finally her box office jinx broke with the success of Hulchul. However as usual Kareena's career wasn't the topic of dicussion for the media. Her famous smooch with her boyfriend Shahid Kapur became one of the year's biggest controveries. The ongoing bitch fight with Amisha Patel continued at full pace too!

Shah Rukh Khan
The Bollywood superstar enjoyed two successes - Main Hain Na and Veer Zaara. However he didnt complete a hat-trick following the box office failure of Swades - but at least the critics loved his performance in the movie. SRK also featured on the cover of Time and escaped serious injury during an overseas concert when a bomb was hurled on stage.

Amitabh Bachchan
He has given the maximum number of interviews and flops this year and was in the news during the Iraq hostage issue as well as for his reaction to the comments made by Rahul Gandhi against the Bachchans.

K Asif
The film was the big news of the year and had reams of newsprint and television footage.

Anupam Kher
The man first made news last year when he was made head of the censor board and he made more news when he was sacked for alleged RSS connections leading to him filing a case in court.

The Pakistan Connection
White Noise, Heda Hoda, Paap and Rog showed in Pakistan. Muammar Rana acted in Dobaara and Jawed Shaikh and Meera have started working in Bollywood. The former is also directing a film here.

Kaizad Gustad
Kaizad Gustad was in trouble and in jail after he filed a wrong report and tried to hide the death of his assistant director from London Nadia.

Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia
The estranged couple came together for a lottery company launched by Khanna in Nagpur. Truly, inki to lottery lag gayee.

Sanjay Dutt
The man swept the awards ceremonies winning many awards for his performance in Munnabhai MBBS.

Madhur Bhandarkar
The director had a flop this year in the form of Aan, but the rape charge filed against him by starlet Preeti Jain kept him in the news.

Parent Trap
Actresses Amisha Patel and later National Award winner Meera Jasmine wanted to take their parents to court for interfering in their lives and allegedly swindling their money- All this for their boyfriends.

Tsunami help
Vivek Oberoi, Sanjay Dutt, Subhash Ghai, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and many others have come forward to help the victims of the Tsunami episode… showing that Bollywood is there for people who has helped it grow.

OBITUARIES

Suraiyya
The singer-actress may have died this year, but her property was also in the news for long, much more than her much talked about affair with Dev Anand.

Mehmood
The erstwhile comedian and the biggest of them all, was not at all in the news relaxing at ease in USA, till news of his death reached Indian shores.

Yash Johar
Johar has given some big hits recently and was remembered fondly when he expired.

AFFAIRS

Saif Ali Khan made news with Hum Tum, but made more news when he split from wife Amrita Singh for new girlfriend Rosa.

Aamir Khan started moving around with new girlfriend and the Chief Assistant Director of Swades Kiran Rao.

Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra also made news for their alleged affair.

A rumour that Rani Mukerji was living in with Govinda also made news… but not more than the fact that the actor became an MP.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT BY RADIO SARGAM