10 Bollywood films to look forward to in 2016

2015 is about to come to a close with the year ending with a fierce battle between Dilwale and Bajirao Mastaani. But the battle is far from being won since 2016 brings along a slew of new films. lets start from the #10 spot.

The 10th spot is tied with 2 films both taking up the spot.

#10 Kapoor and Sons and M.S Dhoni- The Untold Story

Kapoor and Sons

Remember Ek main aur ek Tu? The film directed by Shakun Batra was a refreshing take on Indian rom coms. Well he is back with this film again under Karan Johar's Dharma starring Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Fawad khan. The movie revolves around two brothers played by Sidharth Malhotra and Fawad Khan. Rishi Kapoor will be playing grandfather of the male leads.The music will be composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with Sanjay Dutt and Amrita Puri in supporting roles.

M.S Dhoni- The Untold Story

Directed by Neeraj Pandey who has films like A Wednesday, Special 26 and Baby to his credit this biography of ex-Indian Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the trump cards of 2016. Sushant Singh Rajputt is playing Dhoni and Kiara Advani plays Sakshi Singh Dhoni. The film will also star the likes of John Abraham, Ram Charan, Shreyas Talpade and Fawad Khan.

#9 Ki and Ka

Directed by R.Balki of Cheeni Kam and Paa fame, this film explores the role of men and women in Indian society. Arjun Kapoor and Kareena play a married couple whose relationship challenges the gender roles placed upon women and men in Indian society. The film also stars Amitabh bachchan and jaya bachchan.


#8 Te3n

Being promoted as the comeback of Sujoy Ghosh and Vidya Balan together, this stars Amitabh Bachchan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles and Vidya Balan in a cameo.


#7 Mohen Jo Daaro

Set in the pre-historic times of one of the oldest civilizations of the world, mohen jo daaro has hrithik reuniting with Jodhaa Akbar director Asutosh Gowarikar. Not much is known about the plot of the film, except that the film is to be a romantic adventure story with Hrithik fighting giant crocodiles. The film has extensively been shot in Bhuj, Gujarat, and will see Hrithik romancing debutant Pooja Hegde.


#6 Dangal

Amir Khan plays a wrestler with 2 grown daughters. Tackling themes of Gender Equality and Rural Discrimination, it is based on the life of real-life wrestler, Mahavir Singh Phogat, who taught wrestling to his daughters Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat, and made them national level champions. To add to the unconventionality, Sakshi Tanwar plays Amir’s wife.

#5 Rangoon

Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj are reuniting after Kaminey and Haider in this period film. Set in the time of World War 2, this could be about the Japanese invasion of Burma during 2nd world war. It also stars Kangana ranuat and Saif ali khan speculating that the film is a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

Vishal Bhardwaj has himself said- “Rangoon is a classic tale that will have the musical charm of Moulin Rouge, the romance of Casablanca and the intensity and drama of Saving Private Ryan.”

Release Date-Aug 2016


#4 Udta Punjaab

Set in the heartland of Punjab this is a dark-thriller drama dealing with the increased rate of drug use in the state of Punjab. Starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor and Punjabi actoir Diljit Dosanjh in 4 different tracks, the film shows how drug abuse results in their lives converging. Shot in a real fashion by Abhishek Chaubey, director of Ishqiya this has gone from an offbeat small film, which no one wanted to do due to the dark nature of the story to one of the most talked about films releasing in 2016.

Release Date- Jan 2016

#3 Jagga Jasoos

Starring real life couple Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film narrates the story of a young detective who is on a mission to find his lost stepfather. Ranbir plays the detective called jagga Jasoos and he stammers hwnever he speaks. Only time he doesn’t stammer when he sings- hence the film has most of his dialogues in form of songs. Such a genre has never been attempted in in Bollywood, and the film has more than 15 songs which will be a unique experience to watch.

Release Date- June 2016


#2 Fan

A superstar playing his own fan on celluloid. The premise on which this film is based is intriguing and when Shahrukh Khan plays both the celluloid star and his fan doubles that excitement. Shahrukh plays a 17 year old boy Gaurav, a die-hard fan of superstar Aryan Khanna (Also played by Shahrukh Khan), who apes his idol’s mannerisms and style of conduct. Things take for a turn, when he decides to meet the man who has inspired his life till now. Fingers crossed for this one!

Release Date- 15 April 2016

#1 Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Karan Johar returns to directing after 4 years with a stellar starcast. Said to be a romantic drama, the film has Aishwarya rai playng an older love interest to Ranbir kapoor. It is rumoured that Anushka plays Aishwarya's younger sister and Fawad khan as Ash's ex husband.

Release Date- Diwali 2016

6 other films which could be different, but I am too sceptical about.

Shivaay- Ajay Devgan seems to be a Shiv Bhakht in this South Flavoured Flick.
Gangaajal 2- Priyanka replaces Ajay Devgan as the tough cop.
Sarabjit- Ash plays sister of Sarabjit, the Indian prisoned and hanged by Pak Govt.
Raees- SRK is playing Don in a film which is not named Don
Airlift- Akshay kumar seems to be making patriotic films along the line of Argo
Sultaan- Salman has changed his look which is a shocking thing in itself.

See you at the movies! :)

How accurately do the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) Predict the Oscars?

Screen Actors Guild Awards are the awards which kickstart the Oscar season with their nominations. This year with so many different (read female character based) films competing in different categories, there has been no clear frontrunner in the Oscar race. And with Revenant, Joy and hateful Eight not having released for public, it has become even harder. All this increases the importance of SAG awards this year.

SAG Awards are noticed every year, but after 2 years of continuously being able to predict all Oscar winners correctly- this year SAG is like a mini Oscar in itself. Both Oscars and SAG nominate 20 actors in four categories: best actor and actress and best supporting actor and actress.

Oscar nominees are determined by Academy members- actors nominate other actors, and film editors nominate other film editors. The pool of actors who nominate other actors for acting awards is quite similar in both Oscars and SAG, so the nominees tend to line up with those at the Oscars.
But how accurate are the SAG Awards? I decided to go through the last 5 years of nomination data available and crosscheck if they also got Oscar Nominations. Here are the results.

1. BEST ACTOR

As we can see the last 5 year winners of both SAG and Oscars are the same. As far as nominations are concerned, atleast 4 out of 5 are correct each year. So yes, we can say Best Actor category is predicted well by SAG.

2. BEST ACTRESS

Again last 5 years show, only on one ocassion did the SAG miss out on being correct. But even that year, Viola was clearly said to be winning, only that Academy voters thought of finally honoring Meryl with her 3rd Oscar after 19 years. SO it was more of a honorary thing rather than a note on acting capabilities.
Nomination wise SAG has done quite well, predicting with 80% accuracy.

3. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

So the SAG went wrong once in the last 5 years when they did not even nominate Christopher Waltz for Inglorious Bastards, who went on to win the Oscars. Other than this mistake, the nomination accuracy is much better with 100% accuracy in 2 of the last 5 years.

4. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Even in highly competitive years like in 2014, when Jlaw and Lupita were head to head, SAG did predict the winners correctly. its track record for nominations is even better with 100% in one year and 80% in rest.

Whereas the best picture is concerned, SAG does not give out a Best Picture award, instead it gives A Best Ensemble Cast award, which is usually won by a future Best picture nominee. Past winners have included Best Picture Winners like The artist, Argo, American Hustle and Boyhood.

Hence we have seen in the 4 acting categories, 4/5 SAG nominees will definitely be there up at the Oscar nominations on 14th Jan as well. The 5th place will be open for fight and lobbying. SAG nominations wil clear a lot of uncertainty in the acting categories. Just look at this photo- All of them were Oscar/Emmy winners also.

The SAG Nominations will be announced today, 9th December at 10 a.m. (ET) / 7 a.m. (PT). It is 18:30 in the evening for Indian users. Tune into http://www.sagawards.tntdrama.com/ where you can watch the nominations live. The actual award ceremony takes place on 30th January, a month before the Oscars.