Talk about going meta.
Is Aryan Khan’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood based on the Karan Johar-Kartik Aaryan saga?(Photos: X)
In about a weeks time, Aryan Khan will be making his ‘Bollywood’ debut — not as the lead as everybody would have expected Shah Rukh Khan’s son to crash land as, but behind the camera, with his maiden writing and direction venture, The Ba***ds of Bollywood. The trailer for the series dropped yesterday, and the sheer amount of cameos — and big banner at that! — will have you seeing stars, literally.
Aamir Khan, SS Rajamouli, Disha Patani, Karan Johar, Badshah, SRK himself — the list goes on. But what’s really got people on the edge of their seats with excitement? The very ‘inspired’ premise of what appears to be main plot point. The three-and-a-half minute trailer has most of Reddit stuck on one theory, and a very compelling one, that The Ba***ds of Bollywood is actually based on the rift (and maybe reconciliation?) between Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan.
Excerpts from comments sections read, “an outsider leaving a dharma production film and getting banned by kjo, hmm where have we heard that one before 🙃😅”, “this lowkey looked liked kartik and dharma beef story where the outsider is in dilemma and Targetted from everywhere😅😂✨” and “Very Aryan calling Aaryan promo🙃” to quote a few.
If you’re a Bolly buff, you’ve got the drift right away. If you’re not, the context of this fan theory being floated is Kartik’s very hyped leading man status in KJo’s Dostana 2, which at the time of going into production in 2021, also starred Janhvi Kapoor and Ba***ds of Bollywood lead Lakshya in it as parallel leads. Within 20 days of shooting however, an official announcement was shared by the production house, announcing a recast, citing “professional circumstances”. What ensued was a fairly long Cold War between Kartik and KJo, the former moving to greener pastures and eventually landing himself in one of the most aggressively successful year of his career, 2022, following which the young actor has been on a consistent rise. While the exact details of what went down between Kartik and KJo is known to none, the producer and filmmaker eventually started warming back up to the heartthrob with both silently burying the hatchet. As a matter of fact, Kartik has only just wrapped up filming for his next Dharma venture, Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri, also starring Ananya Panday, up for a release next year.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood will be available for streaming on OTT, starting September 18.