New Delhi: Aryan Khan’s debut series The Bads of Bollywood, in the first episode itself, kicks off with a bang, touching upon three big controversies of Bollywood — nepotism, media critics and his own alleged high-profile drug case involving Sameer Wankhede.
The Bads of Bollywood, featuring Lakshay, Raghav Juyal, Bobby Deol, and others, is currently streaming on Netflix.
Right from the first episode, Aryan sets the tone with a raw, unapologetic portrayal of the underbelly of the Hindi film industry.
In one scene, a man who bears a striking resemblance to ex-NCB officer Sameer Wankhede steps out of a jeep at a Bollywood party. He detains a man smoking weed, but upon realising he’s just a regular DJ, gets disappointed, until he spots a star doing the same. The celebrity is immediately arrested. The next morning, the arrest is all over the headlines, and the actor loses his film deals.
Notably, neither Aryan Khan nor his family has publicly commented on the case before. But with this fictionalised sequence, Aryan might have showcased what went down that night on the Mumbai to Goa cruise.
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Dig at nepo kids, film critics
Aasman Singh, played by Lakshay, is a Delhi outsider trying to make it in Bombay. Even though he delivers a strong debut, critics are quick to tear him down.
“He has started stammering from licking the boots of star kids,” Aasman says in frustration, while watching one of the reviews on television.
Despite his film Revolver earning over Rs 100 crore, Aasman isn’t invited to filmmaker Sanjeev Sharma’s newcomer roundtable. This moment highlights how even commercial success doesn’t guarantee acceptance for outsiders.
He is eventually invited, and the roundtable mirrors Rajeev Masand’s 2019 interview where Siddhant Chaturvedi’s iconic comeback to Ananya Panday had sparked widespread debate around nepotism in Bollywood.
At the roundtable, Aasman doesn’t hold back. He takes a jab at Karishma Talwar (played by Sahher Bambba), daughter of superstar Ajay Talwar (Bobby Deol). When Karishma talks about how tough it is to be a star kid and the pressure it brings, Aasman responds: “If she doesn’t work for two years, she will still ride back to her big house in a Mercedes. But if I don’t work for two months, I’ll be on a train back to Delhi. So now tell me, who really needs to work harder?”
His digs don’t stop here. When Karishma orders a coffee with sugar and a spoon, Aasman comments: “Just get sugar… because you were born with a silver spoon.”
Aryan Khan’s The Bads of Bollywood doesn’t just entertain, it throws open the doors to conversations long whispered in the industry, laying bare the divide between insiders and outsiders.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)