Making sense of Boycott Bollywood

Is the boycott Bollywood trend real or is it just an another harmless twitter trend which has no effect on the ground? Some bollywood personalities have made some insensitive and arrogant comments on the boycott issue. These statements constantly trended on social media. This fuelled even more hatred.

Since the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput an anti bollywood sentiments started to grew. These anti sentiments trend reached its peak level at the time of release of the movie Lal Singh Chadha. This movie was boycotted a lot on social media. The movie released on 11th August and it didn’t do very well in the box office. Was it because of the boycott campaign, or some other reasons were also there?

And recently there have been a strong anti bollywood sentiments. Is there a logical reason behind all these?

Did boycott “Lal Singh Chadha” work?

Any superstar’s movie does have a good opening. The fate of any movie is only decided after the second or third day, when the quality of the movie is out in the public. And in the age of social media any news spreads very quickly, so does movie reviews. A movie is good or bad is known immediately.

Amir Khan’s last two movies, Thugs of Hindostan and Lal Singh Chadha, didn’t do well at the box office. But the difference is Thugs of Hindostan had a huge opening of 52.25 crore, whereas Lal Singh Chadha had an opening of only 11 crore. For a huge star like Amir Khan, having such a low opening was quite a surprise. So for Lal Singh Chadha people actually didn’t turn up. The boycott of Lal Singh Chadha did affect the opening collections of the movie. But, why?

Is Amir Khan the target?

Amir Khan in the past has been quite vocal about some political issues. In November 2015 Amir Khan landed himself into a major controversy when he made the intolerance comment. Is he paying the price for those statements? He has also been accused of hurting hindu religious sentiments for his 2014 movie PK. Nobody targeted the movie’s director or writer, but targeting only Amir Khan seems very hipocritical. The selective nature of these protests shows people biased thinking. Or is he being targeted for his religious identity?

Even after all the criticism PK was a major blockbuster. Even his movie Dangal became a major hit in 2016. There were some boycott trends then also. So what has changed now?

Why did the movie PK, termed as anti hindu became a blockbuster? What really changed that the boycott of “Dangal” was unsuccessful, but boycott of “Lal Singh Chadha” was successful? The answer lies in social media.

Effects of Youtubers

In the last few years many right wing content creators, especially youtubers reach has grown up. Most of their contents consists:

• Countering the left wing narrative
• Supporting anti Bollywood sentiments
• Nationalistic Ideology
• Reviving Hindu Culture
• Pro Govt

Lots of people do get influenced by them. If we watch their videos with an open mind we will find that some of their content does make a valid argument. The question they raise has some justification. But like the left wing creators they also show only one side of the story.

These content creators played a major role in the boycott Laal Singh Chadha campaign. No other movie in the past had to face such anti sentiments. There was a vicious boycott campaign in other social media platforms also. The past clipings of Amir Khans movie, his interviews, his statements were dug out and were constantly being trended on the internet. This created a negativity around for the movie which unfortunately affected the movies business.

There were some protests at the time of PK and Dangal also, but the scale was very small. Social media was not very active in these matters then. And the most important thing we must understand that PK and Dangal were quality movies with a different theme. Whereas Lal Singh Chadha is a Hollywood remake not well done.

The Boycott campaign does work, it does affect the business, but if the quality of the movie is good and unique, people will watch the movie.

Changing Social Demographics

Since the BJP came into power in 2014 India’s sociol demographics has been changing slowly. People became more conscious of their respective religion. But the implementation of CAA in Dec 2019 changed the scenario drastically. People were now even more religiously conscious than ever before.

Initially there was widespread rebellion against the CAA. Many bollywood personalities also protested without even knowing anything about the bill. Were they really concerned about the act or was it just a PR stunt?

People started to dig up old tweets, posts and clippings of these bollywood personalities. The recent past of bollywood shows that they have been extremely selective in voicing social issues. It’s like Bollywood raises it’s voices only after knowing the victims’ caste and religion. This hypocrisy was constantly being brought up in social media. A kind of anti bollywood sentiment started to grow from that period itself.

Social media influencers played a major part in making people aware of these issues. The feeling that bollywood people and their movies are anti hindu was constantly being fed in people’s mind. And people did believed this narrative. People were not concerned about these things before but now they are being consciously made aware of. The things which people used to overlook before are now questioning them.

But the major blow for bollywood was the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

Demise of Sushant

In June 2020 Sushant Singh Rajput allegedly committed suicide in his Mumbai Apartment. Mumbai police concluded that it was a straight case of suicide.

But some Youtubers and social media content creators started to question the suicide narrative. They even pinpointed some reasonable facts. Slowly it was picked up by the national media, especially Republic TV and Times Now. They aggravated the issue even further and started their own anti bollywood media trial. Bollywood was being accused of Sushant’s death by these channels. And the majority of public started believing this theory.

Within a few days it boiled down to a major controversy. This went on for a few months. This resulted in a very strong Anti bollywood sentiment. Though the bollywood might not have had anything to do with Sushants death, still the public held Bollywood responsible for Sushants death. It’s difficult to counter the public’s emotions with logic. Without any trial the public held bollywood responsible for Sushant’s death, which is a bit unfair.

Sushant made his mark with his own ability and talent unlike other star kids who are products of nepotism. Being from a middle class family, he was someone who was seen by the public as one of their own. The loss felt very personal to the public and this exact sentiment Bollywood failed to understand.

Do boycott trends work?

These boycott trends were very strong on twitter. People argue that a miniscule number of people are on twitter, so these kinds of trends don’t have much effect. But boycott trends are not only active in twitter, but also very strong in YouTube and Facebook.

These boycott trends then spreads to the society’s psyche. It slowly trickles down in society’s thought process. Even though you are not on the internet or in social media, you get to know about these types of trends from your family members or friends. This is how a small issue boils down to a major one.

The very recently released Brahmastra also faced a strong boycott campaign but still it collected 225 crores worldwide in its opening weekend. But the movie could have collected more than 300 crores if there was no boycott campaign. The occupancy rate for such a magnus movie was only around 40% in its first weekend, which is just above average. Because brahmastra got more screens it was able to earn some money.

So as per now boycott trend is affecting the business and bollywood should stop being in denial about this. Apart from very few flims no bollywood movie is able to live up to its mark. It’s not only because of the boycott campaign but also because of the lack of quality movies which is hurting bollywood.

Effect of Kashmir Files

Bollywood has always been very hesitant in showing real historical events true to its form. There will always be some kind of smart manipulation. Hindi movies has always been very hesitant in touching sensitive topics. People believed that the Kashmir files movie broke that norm.

Many movies about Kashmir has been made, but nobody showed the plight of Kashmiri pandits before. This movie was a major hit of 2022 and it earned 337 crores worldwide. Kashmir files brought strong emotions among the Hindu community. The success of the movie can be somewhat credited to the changing social demographics of our society.

It also evoked a kind of anti bollywood and as well as hindu nationalistic sentiments. There is a feeling among the society that hindu’s voices are never heard off. This movie kind of became the voice of those people. Would this movie have been a success if it was released a decade ago? May be not. It’s like the public wanted to punish Bollywood by making Kashmir Files a success. It’s like the public sending a warning message to the bollywood.

People are angery because bollywood has always been unapologetic in showing the hindu traditions and cultures in bad light. But it doesn’t seem like it was done purposely, maybe the script is such? The theory of bollywood being consciously anti hindu doesn’t have a logical argument. But still some unnecessary jibes could have been avoided.

The Core issue

The real issue is that Bollywood is still stuck in its past glory. They are unable to understand the shifting paradigm of the audience. There is a lack of original content, so many movies are just remakes of the south or Hollywood. The rise of OTT’s like Netflix and Amazon hasn’t helped bollywood either. OTT has made way for pan India reach. People are not willing to go to the theatre that easily unless it’s a magnus opus like RRR, KGF or Puspa, which is by the way all are south movies.

And also the past selective wokeism of bollywood is hurting them now. Bollywood personalities also have the right to express their views. Similarly public also have the right to express their displeasure. They have a democratic right to boycott, no matter how absurd their reason may sound.

In future also some will get boycotted and some won’t. Some boycott will work and some won’t. Only time will tell whether these boycott trends will continue or its just a temporary phenomenon.