Ranveer Singh
The Outlander
Because he is the outrageous poster boy of Bollywood shock and awe who always gets the girl. The 34-year-old actor has had a great year.
Gully Boy, one of 2019’s top grossers, was India’s official entry to the Oscars. Wifey Deepika Padukone and he stay constantly in the news by tweeting endearments and domestic jokes to the delight of lesser mortals.
The social media-savvy couple know what it takes to make a public mark as a causerati, recycling their wedding outfits for Tirupati and Golden Temple visits.
Ranveer is both a fashion icon and a wardrobe outrage: he appeared at the Old Trafford cricket ground for the Indo-Pak cricket match in Muppet pajamas, a shiny printed robe, a pinstriped suit, skirt and oversized glasses, trending at the top that night. He has launched his own independent music label IncInk which he called, “My passion project.
A manifestation of a certain vibe. #IncInk is an independent record label formed by artists for artists... to discover, nurture & promote exciting talents from across India.”
Indian hip-hop artists Kaam Bhaari, Spitfire and Slow Cheeta will be voices of his music company. The upcoming year will see him take a break from period films since he has been chosen to play Kapil Dev in ’83.
Androgynous fashion
Went to movie promotions wearing dresses, skirts, kilts; pulled an all-pink suit at Gully Boy’s premiere this year in Berlin. Wore kohl eye makeup at an awards ceremony.
Ouch!
Wife Deepika refused to pair with him for three new films to avoid couple overexposure; except a cameo in Karan Johar’s Brahmastra
Branch out
Instaposted his availability for dancing at weddings to mundans and was seen entertaining guests at a Delhi wedding recently
Ouch!
Deepika calls him her ‘super drug’
Pankaj Tripathi
The countryman
Because he is the profane genius of Indian showbiz who has brought the harsh realism and violence of the Indian hinterland to viewers like no other actor has.
His role as the Machiavellian guruji of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s gangster Gaitonde in Sacred Games II and previously the abusive goon in Gangs of Wasseypur proved Pankaj has the screen presence to pull off the most diverse roles in his copyright slanted accent.
In November came the teaser that the superviolent Amazon Prime serial Mirzapur, which cemented Tripathi’s reputation as Kaleen Bhaiya and India’s biggest streaming star, will return to TV screens for its second season in 2020.
The voice-over starts with, “Jo aaya hai woh jayega bhi. Bas marzi hamaari hogi,” as pyres burn on the river bank. Within two days, his Instagram account got around 53,000 followers.
He is currently on location in Rajasthan shooting for Mimi co-starring Kriti Sanon. More releases are lined up: Tanhaji, Panga, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, Gunjan Saxena, Angrezi Medium, ’83, Roohi Afza and an untitled anthology movie by Anurag Basu.
Tripathi started in theatre and went into films after he arrived in Bombay as an unknown Bihari. Now, the successful actor with acclaimed roles in Luka Chuppi and ’83 has just moved into his new posh home in Madh Island.
A film word insider says Tripathi’s fee could be anything between `25 lakh and `1 crore a day. His star power has brought him lucrative endorsement deals with Tata Tea, Star Plus and Policybazaar.com.
Jail time
Jailed for a week in 1993 after taking part in ABVP protest against the Lalu Yadav government
Hospitable man
Holds hotel management degree from Patna.
Worked in ITC Maurya hotel, Delhi.
2020 top plan
Taking a long vacation
Role he won’t play
Child abuser
Opposed to
Machismo fake culture that gets very crowded
The whole village landing up on the doorstep while he is visiting his parents
Salman Khan
Big Boss
Because he is the Khan whom the box office loves the most, controversies be damned. Bharat raked in Rs 355 crore and Dabangg 3 has set the cash register ringing making `82-83 crore in the first four days.
Buzz is that he is leaving popular reality show Bigg Boss, which became a hit on his watch but the producers have persuaded him to stay on for a bit more—a bit more being Rs 8.5 crore an episode. No stranger to court cases, Khan got Supreme Court support when it shot down a petition complaining that his film Loveyatri was offensive to Navratri.
Lucky charm
Turquoise stone bracelet
New record
Dabbang 3 to be his 15th film to enter the `100-crore club
Getaway
Panvel farmhouse, where he works out, swims, paints, plays sports like volleyball, table tennis, cricket, flies kites and goes fishing in the pond there
Anurag Kashyap
King of content
Because he is a versatile filmmaker who can spot the right story for its blockbuster potential.
The director of Gangs of Wasseypur is working on Project 10, which is being produced by his company Good Bad Films.
Sacred Games was nominated for best drama at International Emmy Awards.
He has also written the Hindi lines in Geetu Mohan Das’s critically and commercially successful Moothon.
Kashyap clearly has Netflix on speed dial: he is directing a feature film, Choked, and has an episode in Ghost Stories, which will be available to subscribers from January 1, 2020.
He headed the jury for the Asian feature film competition at the Singapore International Film Festival this year. He also represented India at the International Emmy Awards.
Not one to rest on his laurels, the auteur is now developing Suketu Mehta’s book Maximum City as a series for Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment.
He was trolled for writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concerns over lynching—49 celebrities signed the letter alleging that ‘Jai Shree Ram’ has become a war cry.
Record-breaking
Claims to own largest personal film library in the country at home
Embarrassment
His participation in the Mandal Commission protests. Trolls called him by a casteist profanity.
Mystery
Losing Twitter followers from over 5,00,000 to 76,300 though he was not unfollowed
Ayushmann Khurrana
Budget superstar
Because he made the small town sexy in Bollywood. Khurrana is Hindi cinema’s undefeated anti-hero hero having delivered nine hits of the 13 films he played lead roles in.
Of the three releases in 2019, Dream Girl and Bala made it past the Rs 100-crore mark, and Article 15 made Rs 93 crore.
The secret of the 35-year-old actor’s success is his small-town charm with a sophisticated edge; every townie kid wants to be the man in Andhadhun. Simply put, he connects.
Khurrana has deconstructed the Bollywood hero in films set in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. His depiction of small-town India is so real that Badhaai Ho entered the Rs 200-crore club, a first for content-based cinema without featuring an A-list star cast. Watch out for him in Gulabo Sitabo next year with Amitabh Bachchan.
What’s in a name?
Father P Khurrana is a well-known astrologer who advised him to add the double ‘n’ in his first name and double ‘r’ in the last
Money sense
Recently invested in a men’s grooming brand
When not acting
Chills, takes long holiday with wife Tahira, concentrates on music, jams with his band, writes poetry and spends time in Chandigarh with his parents
Tapsee Pannu
Rebel with a course
Because she proved that being different is also commercially a win. Pannu gave a stellar performance in Saand ki Aankh, playing a real-life Haryana sharpshooter who battled age-old misogyny. The sports biography run doesn’t end there.
Next, she will be seen playing ace Indian cricketer in Shabaash Mithu. She is no wilting lily: Pannu is one of the new brand of actresses who takes on chauvinism from gender to lingo.
At the International Film Festival of India in Goa speaking a the ‘Women in Lead’ session, a smart alec in the audience asked her to speak in Hindi.
She snubbed him saying, “I also act in South Indian films, so shall I speak in Tamil and Telugu too?” She has figured the art of staying in the news with public spats with other stars.
When Kangana Ranaut’s sister called her a ‘sasti copy of Kangana’, Pannu suggested they were offended because she couldn’t hang out with them the way they gave her time and attention.
Game not over
The former national-level squash player has bought a team called Pune Seven Aces in the Premier Badminton League
Mic Test
Maiden standup role in Amazon Prime comic show
Amused by
People calling her “dear” on Facebook and “babe” on Instagram and Twitter