#BingeRewind: 2025 became the year where two stars were born - Saiyaara and The Bads of Bollywood!

This is the story of how Saiyaara and The Ba**ds of Bollywood became the stars of 2025 that didn’t just succeed but brought back Bollywood’s lost sense of hope!

For years now, there have been endless conversations about the supposed doom of Bollywood, about how the Hindi film industry, the largest in the country, has somehow lost its way. There was a quiet longing for something more, for that star, a saiyaara - taaron mein ek tanha taara, jo khud jal kar roshan kar de jag saara. And perhaps that’s why Saiyaara felt less like just another film and more like an answer.

Because this film didn’t merely arrive, it was reassuring. It gave us new actors who felt dependable, performers you could trust not just to deliver but to carry the weight of mass appeal without losing emotional honesty. It reminded us of the kind of storytelling that doesn’t grab you by the collar but gently wraps you in its arms, holds you close, and then lets you go, not shattered, but aching. Aching in a way that reminds you what it means to feel. And in doing so, Saiyaara became everything we wanted from a Hindi film while quietly becoming far more than we expected.

On the surface, it appears familiar with a tragic romance about a broken man healed by a woman. But the real beauty of Mohit Suri’s direction lies in how the film fulfills that expectation only to dismantle it. Somewhere along the way, we’ve trained ourselves to intellectualise first and feel later. And as experience has taught us how these stories usually end, we assumed that Vaani must die for Krish, because that’s how love stories of this kind often conclude. Aashiqui 2, A Star Is Born - we’ve been here before.

So when the film walks us toward that familiar cliff we brace ourselves for the inevitable death. But instead, we find Vaani alive. Her memory is gone, yes, but she lives. And that moment lands like a quiet shock. The tragedy we were prepared for never arrives. What follows is even more unexpected that Krish doesn’t walk away. He helps her remember, even marries her, as if to say it’s not about sacrificing it’s about staying. And how often do we get to see that in the era of green or red flags canceling each other out?

In refusing martyrdom,Saiyaara chooses courage in staying back, of choosing love, of being a selfless ball of emotions. And that choice hits harder than death ever could. In that sense, the film becomes a reminder of why it’s sometimes necessary to feel first. Cinema often mirrors reality, and we appreciate it when it does but sometimes, we need films to remind us of hope. Even when that hope is tangled in tragedy. We need that aspiration to sit in a dark theatre, surrounded by strangers, and lose ourselves completely in what unfolds on a 70mm screen. For many this year, Krish and Vaani did exactly that.

Which is also why those who dismissed the film as “cringe” perhaps missed the point. These weren’t emotions meant to be analysed, they were meant to be felt. Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda bring that feeling alive with remarkable freshness. Their chemistry felt lived-in, unforced, original. And then there was the music. Every track carried meaning like every melody brought back recall value, so much so that hearing a Saiyaara song instantly pulls you back into Krish and Vaani’s world as if saying “Abhi kuch pal baaki hai mere paas…”

Also Read: #BingeRewind: Underrated films that didn’t receive the praise they truly deserved

And just when it felt like one so-called “nepo kid” had quietly shattered stereotypes with sincerity, another made a striking entry behind the camera. Aryan Khan’s directorial debut, The Ba**ds of Bollywood, arrived carrying an impossible legacy. To be the son of Shah Rukh Khan, the last true superstar of the country is not just inheritance; it’s pressure. One could argue that even SRK himself sometimes risks being swallowed by the monument that “Shah Rukh Khan” has become.

And yet, Aryan Khan doesn’t just step out of his father’s shadow, he builds into it as something entirely his own. He proves a simple truth that nepotism might get you through the door, but staying in the room depends on what you bring with you. More importantly, the dark comedy proves that Bollywood can laugh at itself just as loudly as the world laughs at it - as if to say that if the world is a tragedy and it needs Bollywood to be the comedy, then why not be in on the joke?

The show’s meta, satirical gaze plays with the insider–outsider debate while paying tribute to the industry’s chaos, contradictions, and charm. And this bastard and Bollywood combo is as much about the gangsters who dominate to run the show as it is about the illegitimate children they hide away. But it refuses to place the people who make films on pedestals simply because they make movies. Instead, it reminds us that they are just as messy, insecure, and ridiculous as the rest of us.

True to its subject, the series has everything from action, comedy, drama to emotion. It’s pure entertainment, much like a classic Bollywood masala film. But it also leans into the gossip, those delicious bites that fuel any Reddit thread alive with conversations and whispered debates. It revels in the industry’s flaws while reminding us what mass commercial Hindi cinema has always stood for - entertainment, entertainment, and entertainment!

Beyond the cameos of the stars that almost brings the entire Bollywood together, the ensemble cast itself was a triumph.As actors bring so much reality that the characters become memorable in their own right. And every fictional detail feels like an Easter egg, blurring the line between myth and reality. After all, as Bobby Deol songs resurfaced so did that iconic SRK clip of KWK where he talks about the incestuousness of the industry. The series keeps you guessing about where fiction ends and truth begins with the one most prominent fact that Aryan Khan is the ultimate insider!

So, by the time the year draws to a close, it’s no surprise that these two titles keep resurfacing in every conversation whether it is about music, acting, direction, writing or cultural impact. One is a star that burns quietly in tragedy, reminding us why feeling still matters. The other is brash, sharp and mischievous and gave us exactly the kind of Bollywood masala we live for! And together, The Ba***ds of Bollywood seem to finally have found their Saiyaara. And perhaps, finally, the sky doesn’t feel quite so empty anymore.

What do you think about these two stars of the 2025? Let us know in the comments below!

This article is a part of our #BingeRewind series where we talk about the year that was!