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The People Bollywood Loves To HATE
Sometimes people rub Bollywood the wrong way. And the vengeful industry believes in writing them off.
Some of the people mentioned in this list might be talented, successful and popular -- but they are all also clearly disliked by their peers and by the Hindi film industry in general.
Here's a look at 10 film personalities who ticked off Bollywood:
Shirish Kunder
Long before Shah Rukh Khan slapped him and Sanjay Dutt punched him, Farah Khan's husband was already unpopular in the industry because of his cockiness and arrogance.
He didn't have many friends, which is why despite his first film Jaan-E-Mann actually being pretty good, his second film Joker was dismissed with ghoulish eagerness by the industry.
By no means is Joker a watchable film, but the way large sections of the media have started calling it Akshay Kumar's 'worst ever film' smacks of personal vendetta against the director: let's not forget that this is the actor who gave us films as hideous as Kambakkth Ishq and Chandni Chowk To China before.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Clearly the actress hasn't made as many friends as one would have thought, and there appears to be no dearth of detractors just waiting for a chance to run her down.
Critics have always come down hard on Rai, and now it seems open season on the lady. At least till she comes back with a hit and everyone pretends they've always loved her.
Ram Gopal Varma
It's been a long time since the onetime trailblazer has been taken seriously, his increasingly mediocre output failing to impress critics or audiences.
The problem with Varma, however, is the fact that despite him having given the industry some of its brightest talents, they refuse to be associated with him anymore.
Arrogance, self-importance and rudeness have a big part to play.The 'has-been' tag has been thrown around his neck very firmly, and while actors like Amitabh Bachchan continue to work with him out of loyalty, he has clearly been written off by his filmmaking peers.
Ekta Kapoor
The undisputed queen of the silver screen and currently one of Bollywood's most impressive producers, the czarina is rumoured to have serious issues relinquishing creative control.
Most people who have worked with her -- no matter how successfully -- swear that they will never do so again, and since Kapoor's success just grows, this is usually to their own detriment. No, most people aren't very fond of Kapoor, but she doesn't really seem to care.
Ronnie Screwvala
Just like Ekta, the UTV head honcho is one of the most powerful producers in the country.
Unlike her, however, his company is allegedly not very popular among ex-employees, especially when it concerns remuneration. Most people who have worked with Screwvala have gone on to lambast him later, and tales of him hanging filmmakers out to dry are legend even if not all true.
The fact that UTV itself has seen several changes in its top management haven't helped, and while Ronnie's firm -- now acquired by Disney -- is doing well enough, they don't exactly have the most goodwill in Bollywood.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
The night Saawariya premiered, as Karan Johar put it on his blog, was the night Bollywood enjoyed twisting the knife into Bhansali's back.
The film was an absolute disaster, certainly, but Bollywood enjoyed Bhansali toppling. When the lamentable Guzaarish met the same fate, there was similar high-fiving across the industry.
For too long had the boorish Bhansali written his own ticket. Egomaniacal big-budget filmmakers rarely find many true friends, but when failure comes to them, their foes appear more apparent than ever.
Mallika Sherawat
Hello, Hollywood.
Mallika Sherawat made quite an impression at Cannes and tried wangling her way through Los Angeles, hobnobbing with celebrities (and forever tweeting every remotely boast-worthy encounter, naturally) and the Hindi film industry reacted, rather peevishly, by completely writing her off.
Even before Hollywood happened, major actors were wary to work with Sherawat and have their thunder stolen by the siren, but now most A-listers are happy ignoring her completely.
Vivek Oberoi
After making one of the most sensational debuts in Hindi cinema -- with the one-two knockout combination of smash hits Company and Saathiya -- all was well for Oberoi until Salman Khan started calling him up one night.
Khan's calls unnerved Oberoi, who was dating Khan's ex, Aishwarya Rai, at the time, and the latter called a press conference to tell the world.
Not a very good move for a hero, no. Not just did Oberoi's image take a beating, but the industry, annoyed that the actor broadcast the dirt on his linen far and wide, never respected him again. A bowing apology to Sallu later only worsened things for Oberoi.
Anurag Kashyap
It's all hunky-dory now for Kashyap, in talks with mainstream superstars like Ranbir Kapoor and Aamir Khan, but back in the day when his films had trouble getting released, the easily-angered filmmaker took to the blogosphere to rant against mainstream cinema and producers like Yash Chopra.
His bile created a cult but marginalised filmmakers against him, who stayed cold towards Kashyap till he eventually became successful.
A rant by Kashyap against Bhansali's Black also, it is rumoured, led to an angered Amitabh Bachchan getting Kashyap evicted from working on Mani Ratnam's Guru.
Puneet Issar
After all those relatively recent unpopular folk, here's a blast from the past.
Literally.
Puneet Issar, best known for playing Duryodhana in television's Mahabharata, was the strongman who threw a punch right into Amitabh Bachchan's solar plexus in the film Coolie.
The punch, of course, was heard around the nation as Bachchan collided with a table and ruptured his spleen. It was a serious enough injury to keep Bachchan in hospital for months, and as the nation prayed for Amitabh, Bollywood decided to punish Issar.
The actor didn't get work for six straight years after the 1982 accident, and claims to have faced animosity from the industry long after that.