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The Ba**ds of Bollywood Review: Wickedly Twisted And Enticingly Funny Parody
‘The Ba**ds of Bollywood’- The directorial debut of Aryan Khan – the son of King Khan Shah Rukh Khan is made with obvious affection for the world and word called Bollywood, laced with wicked, subversive humour and spoof on Bollywood, the seven-episode series is an entertaining take on the big large FU***** Film Industry.
The Ba**ds of Bollywood synopsis
The seven-episode series directed and written by Aryan Khan along with his writers Bilal Siddiqui and Manav Chauhan, is a parade of Bollywood daddios that come with a dig at nepotism and in the later episodes, explanation of the title (the * gets revealed). An unknown from Delhi Aasmaan (Lakshya) gets a break in a film getting made under the banner of Sodawallah Productions owned by a highly egoist Freddy Sodawallah (Manish Chaudhari). The break for Aasman turns lucky, the movie becomes a hit and in the heat of the moment during the success party of that film, Aasman signs up a watertight three-film deal with Freddy. Aasman’s manager Sanya (Anya Singh) manages to sneak into Karan Johar’s eyes and mind and convince him to take a shot at Aasman, after initial hiccups Karan Johar agrees and Aasman gets casted in Karan Johar’s unique love story opposite superstar Ajay Talvar’s (Bobby Deol) daughter Karishma (Sahher Bamba). Freddy suddenly decides to start his next and this puts Aasman in a spot and to make matters worse, there is somebody who doesn,t want Aasman to do this Karan Johar film with Karishma.
‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ — the web series has created a huge buzz since its announcement and why not – picture this – a nepo kid whose father is the King of Bollywood on his directorial debut makes an impression that his debut series will expose the dirty secrets of Bollywood and present an entertaining spoof on the tinsel town?!. Well, the promise has been kept to a lot of extent. And the pun on Bollywood (intended of course), comes with series of fun filled gags/sequences featuring Aamir, Salman, Shah Rukh, SS Rajamouli, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranvir Singh, Rajummar Rao, Arjun Kapoor, and of course, Karan Johar (in a proper role and cannot be called as a cameo).
When Karan Johar says the word ‘movie mafia’ you know how well it has landed, the ‘vada pav and idli sambhar’ debate between Aamir Khan and Rajamouli is hilarious, the fractured leg sequence featuring Ranvir Singh, Karan Johar and Parvaiz (Raghav Juyal) – the loyal friend of Aasman is superb, while in the mentioned acceptable gigs which can be enjoyed with family, a crude, below the belt dig at ‘Pushpa’ is also there during the later stage justifying the ‘A’ certificate. And last but not the least, the dig at Sameer Wankhede (nam toh suna hoga) in the very first episode itself setting the mood and tone of the series.
So, where is the problem?
Well, in its enthusiasm to show the dark, dirty and mean side of Bollywood, Aryan Khan restores to those ordinaries which we already knew. ‘The Ba**ds of Bollywood’ is nothing different from Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck by Chance, Farah Khan‘s ‘Om Shanti Om’, or Karan Johar’s web series ‘Showtime’, when it comes to exposing Bollywood’s dark side.
Whatever be the case, its commendable that Aryan Khan in his debut as a director has pulled this one out nicely as a wicked, twisted, parody. Yeah, it’s a parody for me – now it also depends on who is watching.
Performance
Lakshya plays Aasmaan Singh – the outsider and he is Outstanding.
Sahher Bammba, as Karishma Talvar – the nepo child is good.
Bobby Deol is terrific.
Raghav Juyal as the saacha dost is just effortlessly brilliant.
Mona Singh as Mrs. Neeta Singh, Aasmaan's mother is wonderful
Vijayant Kohli as Mr. Rajat Singh, Aasmaan's father is good
Manoj Pahwa as Mr. Avtaar Singh, Aasmaan's uncle is fabulous.
Anya Singh as Sanya, Aasmaan's manager is fantastic.
Rajat Bedi as Jaraj Saxena is quite good.
Manish Chaudhari as Freddy Sodawallah is very natural.
Arshad Warsi as Ghafoor Ismail is marvelous.
Meherzan Mazda as Jeejeebhoy is very good.
Gautami Kapoor as Anu Talwar, Ajay Talwar’s wife is fine.
Divik Sharma as Shaumik Talvar has his moments.
Cameos
Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Emraan Hashmi, Ranbir Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Badshah, Karan Johar, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Ibrahim Ali Khan, Sara Ali Khan, S. S. Rajamouli, Disha Patani, Orry Awatramani, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Rajkummar Rao, Neelam Kothari, Bhavana Pandey, Seema Sajdeh, Shalini Passi, Shanaya Kapoor, Maheep Kapoor. (Sorry if I missed anyone)
The Ba**ds of Bollywood review – final words
Either you love Bollywood or hate Bollywood, and if you have a stomach and heart for a wickedly twisted and enticingly funny parody then ‘The Ba**ds of Bollywood’ is your fix.
Going with four out of five stars (an extra for the cameos) – 4/5
Made under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment for Netflix, ‘The Ba**ds of Bollywood’ is streaming on Netflix from September 18, 2025.
Pls Note: The Series is rated ‘A’ for foul language and adult humour.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma