Instagram’s latest throwback wave—“2026 is the new 2016”—has celebrities revisiting a decade-old timeline through carousels, selfies, and set memories, turning 2016 into a pop-culture time capsule.
Kangana’s 2016 rewind: career highs—and a turning point
Joining the trend, Kangana Ranaut shared a set of 2016 throwbacks—magazine shoots, personal selfies, and film-set moments, including a still with Rangoon co-star Shahid Kapoor and a photo with Arjun Kapoor.
In her note, Kangana framed 2016 as the “inevitable” rise of her career after back-to-back successes, but also as the start of a deeply turbulent phase.
“A controversial legal notice”: the subtext behind the post
Kangana explicitly referred to receiving a “controversial legal notice” in January 2016—without naming anyone in the post—adding that the episode “shook and divided the industry” and that “success became poisonous” as “life became a living hell.”
Multiple reports linked the remark to her long-public legal dispute with Hrithik Roshan in 2016, which escalated into a prolonged, highly publicised cycle of notices, counterclaims, and investigations.
“Thank God it’s not 2016”: where she says she is now
A decade later, Kangana’s tone was reflective rather than combustible—writing that if she had known in 2016 the drama would matter far less with time, she “would have not been so miserable back then,” adding: “Thank God it’s not 2016 and we are in 2026.”
By – Juhi