From Will Smith slapping Chris Rock to furor over Deepika Padukone’s saffron bikini in Pathaan, here are events that made headlines in 2022

Many national and international controversies became part of our daily lives in 2022. Here’s a list of top news makers of the year…

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at Oscars

This will go down in the history of Academy Awards as one of the most controversial acts. The Will Smith slap-gate incident was highly condemned but it also highlighted Jada Pinkett Smith’s fight with Alopecia. Memes were flying left, right and centre. Nicole Kidman’s reaction to this matter was duly noted.

Poster of Kaali

Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai shared the poster for her film Kaali on social media, which sparked a controversy. The depiction of Maa Kaali smoking a cigarette in this poster offended people’s sensibilities. The poster also showed the star portraying the Goddess, holding a trishul in one hand and the LGBTQ pride flag in the other. Many complaints were filed against the filmmaker but she stood her ground.

Johnny-Amber defamation trial

There was so much drama in this case that a two-part documentary, titled Johnny vs Amber, is announced to give an insight on what went wrong in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s marriage. The trial was made public and Virginia civil jury ruled in favour of Depp, after finding out that Heard had not only made false and defamatory statements but that she’d done so with “actual malice”— a higher threshold for cases involving public figures. Jurors concluded Depp should receive more than $10 million.

Conman Sukesh’s link with B-town

Bollywood actresses Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi came under the scanner of ED when Rs 200 crore extortion case against conman Sukesh Chandrashekar came into the open. The controversy didn’t die down the entire year. Both the actresses were summoned by ED multiple times and most recently, Nora Fatehi filed a complaint against Jacqueline alleging that the latter made defamatory allegations against her for “malicious reasons” and to destroy her career. The case is still on while Jacqueline has been granted bail.

Ranveer Singh’s nude shoot

Ranveer Singh set the internet on fire by going naked for the photoshoot of an international magazine. It all started when Ranveer shared the pictures on his Instagram handle. Sitting on a Turkish rug, lying naked on it, striking different poses, the actor looked comfortable in his skin but sure made many raise eyebrows in the country. Few went on to register a case against the actor for obscenity.

The Kashmir Files vs IFFI jury

In the month of November, The Kashmir Files landed in a controversy because the IFFI jury head, Nadav Lapid, an Israeli filmmaker and India’s guest at the festival, called the film a ‘vulgar propaganda film inappropriate for an artistic competitive section’. Many had asked for Nadav’s apology but he stood by his words. The filmmaker was later on backed by other jury members of IFFI.

Boycott trend for Laal Singh Chaddha

The impact of boycott trend was witnessed by Bollywood when Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha failed at box office in India, although the film did great in foreign countries. The film is an official adaptation of 1994 American film Forrest Gump. Aamir returned to the silver screen after almost four years. The scale of the film, its Rs 180 crore budget and Aamir’s stardom meant much was expected of the film but due to the boycott calls, it only made Rs 69.92 gross India collection.

Pathaan song row

The latest film to receive a backlash from the boycott Bollywood brigade is Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone-starrer Pathaan. People objected to Deepika’s saffron-hued bikini in the song Besharam Rang and within no time, ‘ban the film’ started trending. While the makers chose to remain silent, SRK indirectly addressed the row as he talked about the “narrowness of view” plaguing social media during the inaugural session of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival.