Aryan Khan's 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood': Inside the Series, Cameos, and Controversial References

Right from the announcement video till the recently released trailer for 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood', one thing is sure, Aryan Khan is here to stay and not behind the shadow of his superstar father Shahrukh Khan, but by creating a path of his own.

Even though the canvas seems to be limited, like the breathing space for the frames feels low, the execution, presentation, and the dialogues are surely catchy and also look like a wonder from a debut director.

"Superstar's son" pressure is something that any nepo kid faces during his or her debut venture. But here, Aryan Khan cleverly decided to put away such pressure by choosing a different path from his superstar father. One more clever tactic that Aryan Khan has applied is roasting Bollywood’s nepotism, which has been a debate for years. By cleverly opting for these two factors, Aryan Khan has put forward a perfect plan for any nepo kid to kickstart their film career effectively.

Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan share the screen together for the first time ever and this has indeed hype the series for all the right reasons. This "cameo coup" also features Ranveer Singh, Karan Johar, SS Rajamouli, Sara Ali Khan, Badshah, Disha Patani, Arjun Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and many others. Fans are buzzing, with one X post calling it "what Bollywood failed to achieve.”

The series is packed with self-referential Easter eggs, including a jail scene echoing Aryan Khan's 2021 arrest where a cop quips, "People become more famous after being locked up."

It opens with Shah Rukh Khan's iconic ‘Mohabbatein’ monologue. It later broke the cliche by shifting the scene to chaos, and features cameos of SRK's manager Pooja Dadlani, and bodyguard, Ravi Singh—fans resurfaced Pooja's ‘Om Shanti Om’ clip. Aryan admitted at the preview event, "Baap ka raj hai" (It's dad's rule), owning the nepotism angle with humor.

During WAVES Summit 2025, the Netflix CEO called the series ‘fun and entertaining’ and also praised Aryan Khan’s directorial skills. He further opened up indirectly about the meaning behind the title of the series, as it hints at a roast on Bollywood underbelly, sparking fan theories from ‘B***rds’ as nepotism metaphors. From his words, it’s sure that the title means the bad boys of Bollywood. From the title itself, we can see the brilliance of Aryan Khan.