A-Z of 2025: Aditya Dhar and Dhurandhar wave to Saiyaara fever and Zendaya's engagement to Tom Holland

FRom a state of war to skim crashes, stab attacks to cancelled weddings, 2025 was nix unawares of a Hindi feature film, full of action, drama and emotions. Here’s a dekko of it all.A- Aditya Dhar's meteoric rise:Filmmaker Aditya Dhar had quite an eventful year, starting with producing a comedy Dhoom Dhaam and then releasing an supernatural horror thriller Baramulla. He closed the year in style with his directorial Dhurandhar that has not shown any signs of slowing down even after almost a month of release.B- Ban on Pakistan:The Pahalgam terror attack in April led to the Indian government putting a ban on the Instagram accounts of many leading Pakistani artistes in India, including Mawra Hocane and Ali Zafar. The government also instructed OTT platforms to ban any Pakistani content on their platforms.C- Chaos around Indigo:The last month of the year became a bane for domestic travellers as thousands of Indigo flights were cancelled across the nation. The issue arose after the airline’s failure to adjust to the new flight crew time limitations mandated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Government of India. The scheduling crisis began on December 2 and ended up with more than 4500 flights getting cancelled over the next 10 days.D- Dhurandhar juggernaut:Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar arrived and how, breaking several box office records along the way. Already across the ₹700 crore mark in India, it shows no signs of slowing down and is heading to become the first Hindi film to cross ₹800 crores in India alone. E- Enrique returned to India:Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias made a return to India in late October 2025 after 13 years and had two sold-out concerts in Mumbai at the MMRDA Grounds on October 29 and 30.F- Fawad Khan’s Bollywood return blocked:Pakistani actor Fawad Khan was set to mark his return to Hindi cinema after the ban on Pakistani artistes was lifted from working in India. His film Aabeer Gulaal, co-starring Vaani Kapoor was to release on May 9. But due to the Pahalgam terror attack, the release was opposed by Federation of Western India Cine Employees, leading to the ban on the film’s release in India. It was eventually released internationally in September.G- Gaurav Khanna’s winning streak:Actor Gaurav Khanna had quite a victorious year as he participated in two reality shows in 2025- Celebrity Masterchef India and Bigg Boss 19, and emerged the winner in both the shows.H- Hera Pheri 3 casting issue:Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty’s Hera Pheri 3 finally seemed to be on track this year with Priyadarshan returning as the director and the trio even shooting a teaser for the film. However, soon Rawal announced his shocking exit from the film, which led to Kumar, who is also a co-producer on the film, filing a case against Rawal. The issue loomed for a few weeks before Rawal decided to return to the film.I- India’s Got Latent:Samay Raina’s show became an instant rage on its release on YouTube. Unfiltered and unabashed, the audience loved the raw nature of it. However, Ranveer Allahbadia’s one ‘obscene’ joke during one of the episodes, got the show into trouble with multiple FIRs being filed against Raina and him. It also led Raina being targetted for his jokes during other episodes as well with the women commission asking him for an apology.J- Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz epic French Open final:The top two players in men’s tennis currently, Sinner and Alcaraz faced off for the first time in a grand slam final at the French Open in June. The marathon match lasted five hours and 29 minutes and is considered one of the best tennis matches in the history of the game, which ended with Alcaraz defeating Sinner and claiming his fifth grand slam title. K- Knife attack on Saif Ali Khan:The year started on a sombre note for actor Saif Ali Khan as he was attacked and stabbed multiple times in the early hours of January 16 during an alleged robbery attempt. The actor was taken to the hospital and the accused was later arrested .L- Love again for Hardik Pandya:After his divorce with actor Natasa Stankovic, cricketer Pandya found love again in model Maheika Sharma. The couple’s dating rumours began in September and they made their relationship Insta official the following month with their vacation pictures.M- Mandhana weds Muchhal that couldn’t be:The high-profile wedding of Smriti Mandhana and Palash Muchhal got cancelled just a day before the big day. The reason for the cancellation was touted to be Muchhal allegedly cheating on Mandhana with one of the members of the choreography team at their sangeet. While reports emerged that the wedding was being postponed due to Mandhana’s father’s health, in December the couple announced individually on Instagram that the wedding has been cancelled.N- National Award win for SRK, Rani:After an illustrious career spanning decades, Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji won their first ever National Film Awards this year for Jawan and Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway respectively.O- Operation Sindoor:After the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir on April 22, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 with missile strikes on terrorism-related infrastructure facilities of Pakistan-based militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir. The Pakistani army retaliated to it the same day and it marked the first drone battle between the two nuclear-armed nations.P- Property battle:Karisma Kapoor’s ex husband Sunjay Kapur’s sudden death on June 12 lead to a full blown dispute over his ₹30000 crore property between Sunjay’s wife Priya Sachdev Kapur and Karisma’s kids and Sunjay’s family. The case is still going on in court with Priya being accused of having tampered with Sunjay’s will.Q- Quality of air deteriorates:The deteriorating air quality in metro cities, especially Delhi-NCR and Mumbai became a grave concern for the Indian citizens. Reports claimed that the AQI index in Delhi crossed 1000, whereas the equipments were made to not calculate it beyond a certain threshold.R- Rhea gets a clean chit:After years of legal battle in Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, Rhea Chakraborty finally got her passport back in September, and a clean chit by Central Bureau Of Investigation the following month, citing lack of substantial evidence against her. The move was criticised by Sushant’s family.S- Saiyaara fever:Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s debut vehicle Saiyaara became a nationwide rage on release. From audiences crying inconsolably to some people going to extremes like watching the film in theatre with an IV drip plugged in, Saiyaara became a phenomenon, while also becoming the highest grossing debutante-led Hindi film. T- Trophygate at Asia Cup:India and Pakistan faced each other at the Asia Cup 2025 in September after the India-Pakistan conflict. While the tensions ran high as the Indian players refused to do the customary handshake after their matches due to the political tension, it reached another peak when the Indian team refused to accept the winner’s trophy from Federal Minister for Interior of Pakistan and PCB chief, Mohsin Raza Naqvi during the presentation ceremony.U- Universe controversy:The Miss Universe 2025 was full of drama as the organiser of pageant in Thailand first ridiculed Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch by calling her ‘dumb’ leading to a walkout by many contestants. Later, the final results and the victory of Mexico were questioned not only by the fans but even the judging panel. MUO owner Raul Rocha’s statement justifying it on the passport strength also drew criticism, even leading to the resignation of fourth runner up Olivia Yace for Cote D’Ivoire from her position.V- Vanga vs Deepika:The latter half of 2025 saw the entire Indian film industry debating over fixed work time culture for working mothers. It arose when Deepika Padukone was reportedly ousted from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit for demanding a fixed eight-hour shift to work on the film. The two figures even took indirect digs at each other in public over the fallout.W- World Cup Victory:India women’s cricket team made history by securing the first win for the country in the ICC Women’s World Cup in November. India defeated reigning champions Australia in the semi finals and then South Africa in the final to clinch the trophy. What added to the excitement is that the victory occurred on home turf in Mumbai.X- X war between Musk and Trump:Elon Musk was a vocal supporter for Donald Trump in his reelection campaign in the US elections, but their relationship turned sour this year and they brought their fallout in public on X. From June to September, the two launched a series of verbal attacks on each other on the social media platform. The feud originated following Musk’s departure from the second Trump administration with his criticisms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a bill intended to be landmark legislation for Trump.Y- Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhanashree divorce:Chahal and Dhanashree were granted a mutual consent divorce by a Mumbai family court on March 20. But what made news was Chahal’s t-shirt during the proceedings which said, ‘Be your own sugar daddy’. This came amid reports of Dhanashree asking for a hefty alimony from him. The two took digs at each other in interviews and the show Dhanashree participated in, following the separation.Z- Zendaya engaged to Tom:Zendaya wore a large diamond ring at the Golden Globes in January, giving rise to reports that she and Tom Holland are engaged. Further reports claimed that the engagement took place during the holiday season in 2024. While the couple haven’t spoken about the engagement yet, Tom’s father, Dominic Holland, did confirm the same.