Controversies don't help Bollywood. 2016 taught us

Close to five Hindi films and one Hollywood film, released during the course of 2016 so far, have made national headlines. The latest to earn the honour has been Karan Johar's grand romance Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

Bollywood's biggest nemesis crown rests firmly on the head of censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. He kicked off the year by giving filmmaker Hansal Mehta's biopic, Aligarh, an "A" certificate.

Nihalani who goes by the sobriquet of "Sanskari Chief" earned the tag of being a classified "homophobic" for giving the film an adult certification as Aligarh was based on the real life story of professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras who lost his job due to his sexual orientation.

Mehta even appealed to the media to condemn the actions of the censor board, and said, "How can this film get an 'A' certificate? The censor board has lost its marbles completely."

Nihalani who seemed to have taken on the role of the nation's moral guardian rather seriously was quick to retort: "The certification we have given to the trailer is according to the content. If the makers feel it is not justified then let them take a public opinion on this… Tell me, is the subject of homosexuality for kids? For teenagers? We have already cleared the film and now they are creating a controversy. This is a cheap publicity stunt by him."

Did the fracas with the censor board help the film garner publicity for the makers?

Not really. Aligarh performed dismally, to put it mildly, at the box office.

But more than the adults in the country, the nation's children appeared to be Nihalani's primary concern. He struck again with a vengeance when one of the most celebrated children's classic The Jungle Book was undergoing certification.

The board gave the film a U/A certificate and that led to many questions being raised about the manner in which they were functioning.

Yet again, the censor board chief proved that he was not just the moral guardian of the country, but also deemed it fit to term one of the most loved classics of literature, scary!

He said, "Please don't go by the reputation of the book. See the film and then decide on the suitability of the content for kids. The 3D effects are so scary that the animals seem to jump right at the audience."

Children or parents couldn't care two hoots and lined up at the ticket windows anyway and the film turned out to be the year's biggest blockbuster.

Being in the news can become an addiction, I suppose. Censor board's revising committee's refusal to certify filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab if the makers did not execute 13 cuts, ensured that the Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhat and Kareena Kapoor starrer made headlines for close to two straight weeks and required absolutely zero publicity.

According to the revising committee, the film's expletive-ridden dialogues and representation of the state of Punjab were defamatory. The Bombay High Court asked the makers to release the film with one cut and also advised the censor board to get their act together.

The media had followed the Udta Punjab controversy minute by minute and given the amount of mileage the film garnered it should have turned out to be a blockbuster.

However leaking of the film's censor copy a day before the theatrical release ate into its revenue and Udta Punjab was a moderate success at the box office.

On the contary, the drubbing received from the Bombay High Court had absolutely no effect as the "sanskari censor board" continued to take its role of the moral guardian even more seriously than before.

They snipped off a shot of lingerie and a reference to the animated pornographic character Savita Bhabhi from Katrina Kaif and Sidharth Malhotra starrer Baar Baar Dekho.

Neither Katrina Kaif's washboard abs, more popularly known as the "revenge body", nor the censor board's shenanigans making headlines saved the film from sinking and how!

Now that we are done decoding the censor board's inadvertent assistance in helping films stay in the news, let's find out how the Khans of Bollywood also did their bit for their film releases without actually meaning to do so.

Leading the pack is the "Sultan" of Bollywood, Salman Khan.

A Salman Khan film needs no publicity. His fans will flock to the theatres irrespective of the fact that the film has been promoted or not. One tweet from the superstar is enough to ensure that his followers line up at the theatres to catch his latest. But Khan did the unthinkable. He compared his strenuous training for Sultan's shoot akin to that of the state of a raped woman during the first set of interviews scheduled for the promotions of the film.

He said, "When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out. I don't think I should have… It feels like the most difficult… I couldn't take steps. I couldn't take steps".

The media, the National Commission for Women, activists and many prominent Bollywood faces condemned and demanded an immediate apology. But none was tendered. Sultan made Rs 300 crore at the domestic box office alone and is the biggest hit of the year so far.

Soon it was Irrfan Khan's turn to grab headlines.

During the promotions of his film Madaari, Khan made strong statements pertaining to Islam. He said, "Rather than fasting during Ramzan, people should self-introspect. Animals are being slaughtered in the name of 'qurbaani' during Muharram. We, Muslims, have made a mockery of Muharram. It is meant for mourning and what we do? Take out (tajiya) processions." All hell broke loose and Muslim clerics made their indignation quite clear. The controversy hardly had any effect on the film's box office performance.

Now with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in the eye of the storm for featuring a Pakistani actor, entertainment journalists who have been kept on their toes through the year thanks to Bollywood making headlines constantly, can only hope that the films which now hit screens will sail through smoothly.

While some might allege that controversies are the biggest publicity gimmicks, some might allude to the fact that the media is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

In fact many might even question if this qualifies as news which should be amplified to the extent to which it does seem to get. Maybe it's just wise to say, "The argument continues..."

Also read - Why 'ban' on Ae Dil Hai Mushkil wouldn't hurt film's prospects