NGL, the Bollywood timeline is chaos right now, Aryan Khan just dropped his OTT directorial debut, and suddenly everyone’s having major ‘Luck By Chance’ flashbacks. Is it deja vu, a wild meme, or just that “star kid knows how to meta” flex? If you’re also side-eyeing the internet and wondering why everyone’s connecting the Aryan-Zoya dots, welcome to the club, dost. Let’s break down the most snackable similarities (and the wild differences), minus the #CancelNepoKids drama, promise.
Image courtesy The Daily Jagran
1) The One With The ‘Star Kid Turns Storyteller’ Energy
Zoya Akhtar (yep, Javed Akhtar’s daughter) burst onto the scene in 2009 with ‘Luck By Chance’, backed by big bro Farhan and Excel Entertainment, direct Bollywood royalty. Fast forward: Aryan Khan (yes, SRK’s beta) just made his creator-writer-director debut with ‘The Ba*ds of Bollywood’, produced by mum Gauri Khan for Red Chillies, and streaming on Netflix since September 18, 2025. Shah Rukh actually confirmed his cameo in Aryan’s series during an X AMA, because why not add a sprinkle of family PR sauce? Nepo debate? Dekh bhai, here we’re rating the craft and all-out honesty. Let’s save the outrage for another day.
2) The Plot Twins (Kinda): Outsiders, Hustle, High-Stakes Dreaming
Both projects chase the Bollywood dream through the eyes of an outsider, except one’s a ‘90s kid’s wake-up call, the other is straight-up meme-age meta. In ‘Luck By Chance’, you’ve got strugglers, besties, and the hustle maze, one lucky break away from the big time. Aryan’s show? Meet Aasmaan Singh, a nobody walking into glam, drama, cutthroat egos, and self-aware LOLs. It’s drama with a tongue-in-cheek twist.
Critics say Aryan isn’t throwing shade as much as he’s remixing reality, think edgy spoof + drama = Gen-Z moodboard.
Image courtesy The New York Times
3) The Cameo Tsunami: Then vs Now
Cameos in both? Bro, it’s like Dussehra sale but for Bollywood A-listers. ‘Luck By Chance’ had SRK, Aamir, Hrithik, Kareena, Ranbir, Rani, Karan Johar, you name it, they waved at the camera. Aryan’s not holding back: You get all 3 Khans (SRK, Salman, Aamir) plus Emraan Hashmi’s viral, scene-stealing bit, literally the internet’s ‘best scene’. Bonus: Saif Ali Khan dropped hints that both his kids, Sara and Ibrahim, do sweet cameos, making this a wild cross-family blockbuster.
Image courtesy Hindustan Times
4) The Meta Masala & IRL Parallels
Aryan’s show dropped a jail reference in the trailer, and people went full Sherlock, linking it to his 2021 headlines, which is seriously meta. Not to miss: Social media spotted cheeky jabs at the NCB/Wankhede saga, because why should real life be any less filmy? And that Emraan-Raghav cameo remake of ‘Kaho Na Kaho’? Already meme gold, enhancing the show’s viral count.
Big picture: Aryan Khan’s Bollywood-insider drama doesn’t Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V Zoya’s formula; it remix-masters it for the meme-verse. If ‘Luck By Chance’ was your old-school paperback, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ is an edgy book. So what do you say, nuanced cinema, cameo parade, or something we haven’t named yet?