Tags: Bollywood , Shahrukh Khan , Salman Khan

Bollywood witnessed some of the hottest and juiciest controversies in the year 2008. With the two 'dignified' Khans bitching against each other and Shilpa Shetty doing everything else other than acting, the year was attributed to box-office bombers.

Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion constantly made headlines for one or the other reason. Controversies began with Kangana Ranaut's wardrobe malfunction scene. She raised many eyeballs for not using a body double. But Kangana's efforts went in vain as the controversial scene was scissored by the director.

John Abraham made news with his yellow trunks in film 'Dostana'. The filmmakers were criticized by the so-called moralists of the industry but the rather 'infamous' trunks made John a really popular man in international circuit. The opening shot of John Abraham emerging from the sea set the tone for the film, with the camera lens lingering a tad too long on his bright yellow trunks. He was awarded the title of 'Sexiest Asian Man' after the film released.

Rakesh Roshan's Krazzy 4 also managed to make headlines by kicking up a controversy. The promos of the film were believed to encourage blind beliefs in misrepresenting people suffering from Schizophrenia. The film was alleged to create barriers for people with the disease in seeking psychiatric treatment and living with dignity.

Yet another film that was grabbled by controversy this year was 'Sorry Bhai'. Singer Rabbi Shergil alleged the film makers to use his song without his permission and Delhi HC ordered a stay on its release following the petition. Later, court cleared the release of the film after the producers agreed to delete the contentious song.

Year's one of the most successful flick 'Singh Is Kinng' was surrounded by controversies due to Akki's look in the film. Akshay Kumar played a Sikh from Punjab where his beard and his turban raised many eyebrows. Akshay, along with Vipul Shah held a media meet specially to clear the airs and apologized for hurting community's sentiments.

Shah Rukh's only release 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' earned a bad name for itself when music directors Salim-Sulaiman were miffed with the song 'Haule-Haule' in question. There were allegations that the song is a modified version of one of Adnan Sami's chartbuster 'Kabhi-Kabhi'.

The year ended with Aamir Khan's much-hyped film 'Ghajini' falling in a legal trap. The release of the film was in trouble when Madras HC ordered a stay on its screening on an issue of right violation. A separate petition seeking similar action was moved in Bombay High Court. Later, the film got a go-ahead from both the courts and was released on the scheduled date.

The highs and lows of stock markets gave the ‘so-called' financial experts a run for their money. No predictions, whatsoever, were applicable to the markets this year. The turmoil phase that began last year continued this year too and how! The moolah flowed in and out of the market worthlessly leaving many at a shock.

Indian markets, as expected could not be rescued from the global recession though the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram claimed the Indian stock markets to be unaffected by the global forces.

The year began with an all time high when Sensex touched 21,000 mark on Jan 8, 2008. Foreign Institutional Investors were finding the Indian economy to be the safest for investment. But the celebrations could not last for long. In the third week of January 2008, the Sensex experienced huge falls along with other markets around the world.

Over the course of two days, the BSE Sensex in India dropped from 19,013 on Monday morning to 16,730 by Tuesday evening or a two day fall of 13.9 pc. On January 21, 2008, the Sensex saw its highest ever loss of 1,408 points at the end of the session. The markets tumbled as investors panicked following weak global cues amid fear of a recession in the US. It recovered a bit later in the day.

The very next day, the BSE Sensex index went into a free fall. The index hit the lower circuit breaker in barely a minute after the markets opened at 10 AM. Trading was suspended for an hour. On reopening at 10.55 AM IST, the market saw its biggest intra-day fall when it hit a low of 15,332, down 2,273 points. However, after reassurance from the then Finance Minister of India, the market bounced back to close at 16,730 with a loss of 875 points.

The prices of crude oil crossed $140 per barrel mark, stoking inflation scorched all and sundry, and global stock markets fell apart like a house of cards. The Indian markets were no different. An easy P-notes policy made the financial biggies re-think. Speculations that the markets have investments from the underworld led to the gripping up of P-note regulations. FIIs didn't seem to like SEBI control and disinvested heavily leading to one of the most prominent falls of the year.

Recession got to its full swing and the markets continued to fall. Sensex crashed below the psychological 5 figure mark of 10K in October, following extremely negative global financial indications in US and other countries. Exactly one year back in October 2007, Sensex had gone past the 20K mark.

October 24, 2008 lost 10.96% of its value on the intra day trade, the 3rd highest loss for a one day period in its history.

Fall in the prices of crude oil helped the providing support to the markets but the investors are not finding a reason to enter. Markets continue to swing by the end of the year as well. It doesn't look to be getting better in the first half, but we can atleast hope for the best.

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