Guest appearances in movies and shows can give us a good surprise or be a rude awakening. In Bollywood cinema these days, it is hard to keep a cameo a secret. Most of the cameos are already leaked by the PR much before the movie is out, like how Shah Rukh Khan was in Rocketry (confirmed in the teaser) or Brahmastra (leaked by Karan Johar during an interview). Or like Akshay Kumar's hilarious cameo in An Action Hero got spoiled when the makers revealed it a couple of days before the movie's release. Year-Ender 2022: From Blonde to Morbius, 7 Worst Hollywood Films of the Year That Disappointed Us.

In 2022, there are some surprise cameos and then there weren't some. There were good cameos and then there were some that left us nonplussed, irked us and even confused us. In this special year-ender feature, let's look at seven Bollywood cameos of the year that made us go WTF!

Riteish Deshmukh in Ek Villain Returns

The mid-credit scene of Ek Villains Returns left a mild surprise for the viewers (that is, for those who were patient enough to be in the theatre after two hours of silly stuff). The scene shows John Abraham's comatose 'Villain' being visited by a stranger. That stranger is none other than Riteish Deshmukh as Rakesh Mhadkar, who is seen alive but wheelchair-bound. Setting him up as some sort of a Mr Glass in this Villain-verse is something nobody expected and is totally bonkers an idea. Only thing is after how Ek Villain Returns turns out to be such a dud, no one expects discount Mr Glass to return any time soon!

Nambi Narayanan in Rocketry: The Nambi Effect

R Madhavan's directorial debut does a decent job of trying to explicate former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan from his accusations and in showing his trials and tribulations. Also I am okay with the idea of showing Shah Rukh Khan (Suriya in the Tamil version) apologising to him on behalf of the country for what he went through. Then R Madhavan does something strange - after playing Nambi till then, he then replaced himself with the OG Nambi. This might have looked good an idea on paper, but the transition looks awkward on screen, and what's more, Madhavan also makes him speak. Nambi Narayanan may be a brilliant scientist, but a dialogue-deliverer he isn't.

Mike Tyson in Liger

The former boxing heavyweight champion joins the elite club of Western celebs that tried acting in Bollywood, but the makers here were clueless as to what to do with them. Tyson can be happy about the fact that the said club includes the likes of Ben Kingsley, Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh, Denise Richards, Will Smith among others. For his much-publicised cameo in Liger screams everything that is wrong with the movie - it is annoying, loudly acted, cringe and totally not needed!

Deepika Padukone in Brahmastra

There are two aspects to be observed about Deepika Padukone's 'cameo' in Brahmastra. One, many viewers were oblivious of the fact that it was the actress when they saw the post-interval scene on the big screen (were they stuck buying popcorns to have missed it?), and they only realised it when the said scene went viral post its OTT release. Secondly, the casting of Deepika in the role of Shiva's mother is very strange, since Shiva is played by Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika and Ranbir used to date each other once upon a time. So felt quite a bit awkward to see the actress playing mother to her ex (even if the character is shown an infant), while his present real-life partner (Alia Bhatt) is playing his love interest in the movie.

Dimple Kapadia in Brahmastra

Let me just keep this very simple - what exactly was Dimple Kapadia doing in the film, apart from piloting a chopper for 2 seconds?

Kapil Dev in Double XL

R Madhavan's directorial debut does a decent job of trying to explicate former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan from his accusations and in showing his trials and tribulations. Also I am okay with the idea of showing Shah Rukh Khan (Suriya in the Tamil version) apologising to him on behalf of the country for what he went through. Then R Madhavan does something strange - after playing Nambi till then, he then replaced himself with the OG Nambi. This might have looked good an idea on paper, but the transition looks awkward on screen, and what's more, Madhavan also makes him speak. Nambi Narayanan may be a brilliant scientist, but a dialogue-deliverer he isn't.

Mike Tyson in Liger

The former boxing heavyweight champion joins the elite club of Western celebs that tried acting in Bollywood, but the makers here were clueless as to what to do with them. Tyson can be happy about the fact that the said club includes the likes of Ben Kingsley, Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh, Denise Richards, Will Smith among others. For his much-publicised cameo in Liger screams everything that is wrong with the movie - it is annoying, loudly acted, cringe and totally not needed!

Deepika Padukone in Brahmastra

There are two aspects to be observed about Deepika Padukone's 'cameo' in Brahmastra. One, many viewers were oblivious of the fact that it was the actress when they saw the post-interval scene on the big screen (were they stuck buying popcorns to have missed it?), and they only realised it when the said scene went viral post its OTT release. Secondly, the casting of Deepika in the role of Shiva's mother is very strange, since Shiva is played by Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika and Ranbir used to date each other once upon a time. So felt quite a bit awkward to see the actress playing mother to her ex (even if the character is shown an infant), while his present real-life partner (Alia Bhatt) is playing his love interest in the movie.

Dimple Kapadia in Brahmastra

Let me just keep this very simple - what exactly was Dimple Kapadia doing in the film, apart from piloting a chopper for 2 seconds?

Kapil Dev in Double XL

Double XL has two cricketing cameos in Shikhar Dhawan and Kapil Dev. Former manages to acquit himself with a playful short dream appearance, but the latter suffers from a poorly written scene. From a very garish rockstar-like intro to his long-tressed getup and how his scene is woven into the narrative, the cameo loses its impact when it also drowned in loud music and convenience-laden writing. Year-Ender 2022 Recap: From Dulquer Salmaan in Chup to Vijay Varma in Darlings, 10 Villains We Loved to Watch in Bollywood This Year! 

Salman Khan in Godfather

This is technically a cheat, since Godfather is not a Hindi film, but it has one of Bollywood's biggest stars making a cameo. Sadly, Salman Khan's much touted South debut is nothing to go gaga about. Playing a similar role that Prithviraj Sukumaran did in the Malayalam original Lucifer, Salman Khan's scenes are ruined by some very pedestrian making and poor VFX. Those who have seen the Chiranjeevi-starrer accused the Salman Khan-scenes for bringing down the viewing quality for what was a decent remake, and we have to say, they are right!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 27, 2022 08:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).