Bollywood celeb spats in the first half of 2015

Bollywood and controversies go hand in hand and the first half of 2015 has been no exception to this cliché - be it actors landing in legal soups, social media wars or controversial appointments in film bodies and institutes.

Imran Khan. PIc/Sameer Markande

Celebrity fights have created a lot of buzz and the latest to join the league is actor Imran Khan and filmmaker Rahul Rawail, who are engaged in a verbal duel on Twitter. It started with Rawail venting his anger at Imran after the latter apparently held the filmmaker responsible for creating friction between him and his Bollywood colleague Ranbir Kapoor. Rawail shot back calling him a "mentally challenged person."

Later, his nephew Rajat too came in his support and tweeted, "imraan khan needs a reality check. It was Mr. Aamir Khan that went from pillar to post promoting 'Jaane Tu...' and his goodwill and credibility got the audience into the theaters. Imraan Khan's claim to fame is "Once upon a time 2" [he ruined the brand franchise built by the stellar performance of Ajay Sir] & "Gori Tere Pyaar Main" which happens to be a landmark disaster in all senses in the solid dharma productions library. Both these above mentioned films are appx loss estimated of Rs 50cr+ to the producers/financiers/distributors. Its extremely sad to hear Imraan Khan make a statement like this about Mr Rahul Rawail. If his has grand uncle was alive today [the legendry film maker Mr Nasir Hussain, who was a dear friend of Mr Rahul Rawail's father Shri H S Rawail [mere mehboob and laila majnu he would have put this obstinate, self conceited, disaster of a non actor in his place....Imraan khan needs to know his position in the trade today - he has only made it to the party list, thats it !!!! (sic)."

Against this backdrop, hitlist rounds up a few instances from the last six months when celebrities were virtually at each other's throats...

Kangana Ranaut v/s Deepika Padukone

Big fight: Deepika dedicating one of her awards to Kangs, stating that she deserved it for her stellar performance in Queen, did not go down well with the latter. Kangana said though Deepika appreciated her work, she hadn't got a congratulatory call from her. Dippy then was said to have made amends by calling her up and Kangana attended Piku's success bash. However, things seemed to come back to square one when Deepika did not turn up for Tanu Weds Manu Returns screenings. Kangana was recently quoted as saying that she is not exactly friends with Deepika, but they are cordial.

Mahesh Bhatt v/s Sonakshi Sinha

Big fight: In mid-February, Bhatt took exception to his daughter Alia Bhatt being named in an FIR for being part of the controversial AIB Roast. He asked why BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha's daughter Sonakshi Sinha was not named in the FIR despite being present at the show. Explaining her stand, Sona said: "Dear Mr.@MaheshNBhatt, a couple of pointless FIR's have been filed before this… Lets not give these ppl the attention they so desperately seek, And as far as my memeory serves me, nobody EVER went to jail for laughing (sic)." An apologetic Bhatt retracted from his stand by posting: "@sonakshisinha TRUE! I could not agree with you more. Thank you for your SANE response. Amazed by your maturity at this tender age. Love (sic)."

Rishi Kapoor v/s Abhijeet Bhattacharya

Big fight: When Salman Khan was pronounced guilty by a sessions court in connection with the 2002 hit-and-run case on May 6, many of his colleagues reacted badly to the judgment. Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya made some unpleasant remarks while expressing his support for Salman which got Kapoor's goat. The veteran star commented: "Ashamed of Abhijit the singer and some Ejaz Khan. Bunch of idiots and non starters (sic)." Sonakshi Sinha too lashed out at the singer and tweeted, "I support my friend but i would never support such insensitive and negative talk. Please dont tag me in ur tweets @abhijeetsinger sir (sic)." Finally, after much hue and cry, Abhijeet tendered an apology.

Sanjay Gupta v/s Vinod Bachchan

Big fight: Sanjay has filed a case against Bachchan for alleged harassment and extortion. He accused him of sending him a 'fake' legal notice demanding refund of R50 lakh which was his compensation for a project that failed to take off. According to sources, the duo collaborated for a film titled Midnight Hero starring Abhishek Bachchan and Sonu Sood. Once Abhishek turned the film down, they were supposed to work on Mumbai Saga which went on hold as Sanjay wanted to concentrate on Jazbaa, touted as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's comeback vehicle. Vinod alleges that he gave money to Sanjay to make Jazbaa, and seeking refund of the money, he filed a complaint with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) besides sending him a legal notice. On his part, Sanjay then filed a R4.5 crore defamation case against Vinod.

Abhishek Kapoor v/s Farhan Akhtar

Big fight: The director was dragged Farhan and his production house to court over the sequel of Rock On. Abhishek claimed that he was working on the script since 2011 along with Pubali Chaudhari, but the producers gave credit only to Pubali. He slapped an infringement of copyright case on Farhan and co. in March. The case is still on in the Bombay High Court.

Anurag Kashyap v/s Kamaal R Khan

Big fight: In April, the filmmaker got into a verbal spat with KRK on Twitter following this tweet: "Dear people I know that you all want honest reviews of films but I am really scared of Karan Johar n Kashyap so can't review at any cost (sic)." Anurag retorted by posting: "For the record I have nothing to do with Mr KRK stopping to review films, I think he is shit scared that he will have to eat his words ...So he blames it on me, because it's also easy to believe that I must have done it. There are genuine reviewer who give bad reviews ..To a lot of my work and I respect that. You are just insignificant Mr KRK. Maybe you have lost ur mojo & they don't enjoy laughing at u anymore (sic)." The argument between the duo dragged on and after a point, they resorted to name calling. After Anurag's 'Bombay Velvet' hit the theatres, KRK kept talking against him and his star cast, but Anurag chose to keep mum.