Aryan Khan, the eldest son of Shah Rukh Khan, has won two awards at the 7th Screenwriters Association Awards for his Netflix directorial debut The Bads of Bollywood. The 28-year-old filmmaker picked up Best Dialogue and shared the Best Screenplay honour with co-writers Bilal Siddiqi and Manav Chauhan in the Web Comedy, Musical and Romance category, converting two of his three nominations into victories at the ceremony held in Mumbai in late May 2026.
The wins represent a significant professional milestone for Aryan Khan, whose entry into the entertainment industry has been defined more by tabloid scrutiny than creative output. The Bads of Bollywood, a seven-episode satire that follows the rise and implosion of an ambitious Bollywood newcomer named Aasmaan Singh, premiered on Netflix on September 18, 2025 and accumulated 2.8 million views in its first week, cracking the platform’s global top ten for non-English language shows.
The series stars Lakshya Lalwani as Aasmaan Singh, Bobby Deol as a powerful but insecure superstar named Ajay Talwar, Raghav Juyal as Aasmaan’s best friend Parvaiz, Sahher Bambba, and Anya Singh as his sharp-tongued manager Sanya. Produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment, the show features cameo appearances from Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, SS Rajamouli, Sara Ali Khan, Karan Johar, and Disha Patani.
Accepting the Best Screenplay award, co-writer Bilal Siddiqi reflected on the project’s origins. “A few years ago, Aryan, Manav, and I sat down to write a show that we would find funny,” Siddiqi said. Manav Chauhan added a line that drew laughs from the audience: “A writers’ room is like a courtroom, because you are simultaneously the lawyer, the judge, the victim, and the criminal.”
The SWA Awards, organised annually by the Screenwriters Association of India, honour writing across film, television, and digital platforms in 15 categories. The association, which functions as both a professional guild and a registered trade union for writers in the Indian entertainment industry, uses a peer-judged selection process that gives the awards a distinct credibility among screenwriters and showrunners.
The 7th edition’s other major winners reflected the depth of writing talent now spread across India’s streaming ecosystem. In the Feature Film category, Karan Tejpal, Gaurav Dhingra, and Swapnil Salkar won both Best Story and Best Screenplay for the heist thriller Stolen, while Reshu Nath took Best Dialogue for Haq. In Web Drama, Sudip Sharma, Abhishek Banerjee, Rahul Kanojia, and Tamal Sen won Best Screenplay for Paatal Lok Season 2, and Satyanshu Singh and Arkesh Ajay won Best Dialogue for Black Warrant. Veteran poet and lyricist Gulzar received Best Lyrics in the Feature Film category for Gustaakh Ishq, and Anvita Dutt won the TV and Web lyrics award for Black Warrant.
The evening’s most debated outcome involved Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar, the Ranveer Singh-starrer that dominated the box office earlier this year but went home empty-handed despite nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Dialogue in the Feature Film section. Social media reaction was swift, with fans and commentators questioning whether the SWA’s peer jury had overlooked commercial success in favour of more understated writing. The debate highlighted an enduring tension in Indian cinema between commercial impact and the kind of craft-level recognition that writers’ guilds tend to prioritise.
In the Television category, the long-running Sony SAB show Pushpa Impossible won both Best Story and Best Dialogue, with Rajesh Joshi and Shabia Walia sharing the story credit and Sneha Desai and Tushar Ishwer taking the dialogue honour. Harneet Singh won Best Screenplay for Itti Si Khushi. The Best Debut award in the Feature Film category went to Aranya Sahay for Humans in the Loop.
SWA General Secretary Raj Shekhar set the tone for the evening with a remark aimed squarely at the industry’s growing reliance on artificial intelligence: “In this era of AI, I am happy to see so many living, breathing, whole human beings.” SWA President Charudutt Acharya struck a more sober note, acknowledging the pressures writers face in an industry that has historically undervalued their contribution. “Things are getting difficult in the industry,” Acharya said. “But as a union, we are here for you all the time.”
For Aryan Khan, the SWA recognition places his debut project on a footing that few second-generation filmmakers achieve in their first outing. The Bads of Bollywood has also attracted legal attention: former Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede moved the Delhi High Court against Netflix, alleging the show mocks his role in Aryan Khan’s 2021 drugs-on-cruise arrest. That case remains pending. A second season has not been officially announced, though the show’s global reception and awards trajectory suggest Netflix will have strong reasons to commission one.
