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If Tom Cruise can do his own stunts in ‘Mission Impossible’, so can Asmaan Singh in ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood’.
Written and directed by Aryan Khan, the seven-episode Netflix series promises a fun, parodied peek into Bollywood’s “outsider vs. insider” divide. With starry cameos that feel straight out of the “Deewangi Deewangi” song from Shah Rukh Khan’s 2007 Om Shanti Om, endless cinema callbacks, and old hit songs sprinkled throughout, the show initially plays like a satire. But soon the script starts veering into a tale of toxic helicopter parenting, ending with a climactic twist that’s equal parts surprising and WTF-level underwhelming.
Lakshya plays Aasmaan Singh, making a killer entry in an action shoot where he catches bullets with his teeth, Rajinikanth style. Fresh off a hit debut, he’s set to star in a Karan Johar (playing himself) film opposite nepo baby Karishma (Sahher Bambba). In a meta twist, the two meet at a newcomers’ roundtable, where a spoof of the viral Siddhant Chaturvedi–Ananya Panday “nepo baby” exchange unfolds. Karishma’s legendary father, veteran actor Ajay Talvar (Bobby Deol), is dead set against her debuting alongside a newcomer like Asmaan, so he goes to bizarre lengths to sabotage Asmaan’s career.
The first four episodes of ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ are quite entertaining, some of which is generated by the thuggish friendship between Aasmaan and his tapori dost Parvaiz (Raghav Juyal). Vijayant Kohli and Mona Singh plays Asmaan’s doting parents, while Manoj Pahwa is endearingly fun as Aasmaan’s chachu, a struggling singer.
Manish Chaudhari plays minor antagonist Freddy Sodawallah, a powerful studio head who locks Aasmaan into a three-film exclusive deal, trouble brews when Dharma Productions comes knocking with an offer from Karan Johar. The meta-joke writes itself: in real life, Lakshya himself signed a three-movie deal with Dharma at the start of his Bollywood career.
The show lampoons everything from glitzy parties and drug scandals to paparazzi and loud TV reporters, a lot of which is chuckle-worthy. But in the last three episodes, it shifts gears into familiar Bollywood territory. Strip away the big-ticket cameos, which honestly start to feel tiresome in the second half, and ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ boils down to the same old formula: a powerful dad trying to keep his daughter away from aspiring Romeo with zero assets and one hit film.
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That said, some of the cameos are genuinely hilarious, especially the ones not spoiled in the trailer, so if you plan on watching ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’, I won’t give them away here. The background score works largely because it leans on nostalgia, for instance the ‘Baadshah’ track cues Shah Rukh Khan’s cameo entry, and Bobby Deol’s hit ‘Duniya Haseeno Ka Mela‘ plays more than once. Among the original songs, Anirudh Ravichander and Arijit Singh’s Badli Si Hawa Hai stands out as a groovy, memorable dance number.
The blossoming romance (or the lack of it) between Aasmaan and Karishma is easily the weakest part of ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’. We hardly see them together, and when we do, there’s zero “ride-or-die” chemistry. Parvaiz nails it in the climax, calling them a “ch**tiya couple”, and honestly, you’ll laugh, because it’s not just funny, it’s accurate. The finale tries to justify why their love story was kept so lukewarm, but instead of being clever, it just exposes how timid the writing really is. Aryan Khan clearly wasn’t ready to push the envelope, so he played it very, very safe.
Viewers might find themselves echoing Karan Johar’s line from the series: “I am entertained, but not enough.” The Ba***ds of Bollywood* could’ve been sharper if it had been trimmed down to a film or a five-episode run. Regardless, for those who love masala action flicks, this might be worth a one time watch.
Rating: 6 on 10. Watch ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ on Netflix.
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