Slogans like ‘Boycott Lal Singh Sadha’, ‘Boycott Vikram Veda’, ‘Boycott Brahmastra’ are taking the social media by storm. Screen critics question how it is fair to blindly ignore a film produced by the labor of hundreds of people, thinking that it is a reaction to one’s personal opinion.
This ‘boycott’ trending is threatening the art world by creating a negative image of the film before its release, without presenting at least the idea of the film or criticism of the film.
One post on your Twitter is enough to completely ignore an image. Aamir Khan’s film ‘Lal Singh Satta’ became the scapegoat. In 2015, netizens are giving reasons that his films are being ignored because he said that ‘tolerance has decreased in the country’. Looking at it that way, many screen buffs are posing a compelling question whether his comment doesn’t make the current ‘boycott’ hate campaign a reality.
Will Boy God Hit the Box Office? – There is a huge difference between what an outsider sees the word ‘boycott’ and what a person inside the film sees. ‘Boycott’ makes a person who has invested a lot of hard work, money, hope and expectation become nothing. If you ask to boycott the film on Twitter, how it can affect the film, the current live example is ‘Lal Singh Chadha’. Screen traders believe that Aamir Khan’s opening has fallen to a 13-year low at the box office.
Although the film received mostly positive reviews, its box office failure was attributed to Boy God. If after 5 years the film of one of the biggest actors known as Bollywood’s perfectionist has crossed Rs.50 crore in more than 5 days, then the seriousness of the boycott has to be understood.
About 1.4 lakh people have registered their ratings on IMDB for this film. If we calculate this number and the collection of the film, it is clear that many people have registered negative ratings without watching the film. Is the prejudice cast without even seeing a film really justified?
Commenting on Boy Gad, actor Akshay Kumar said, “When a film is made, a lot of money and work goes into it. It affects India’s economy. In fact, we are indirectly hurting ourselves, I hope people will understand this soon,” he said. In the past, there were protests against films like ‘PK’, ‘Padmaavat’ and ‘My Name Is Khan’. But today’s trending development has taken a monstrous form beyond all that.
The trend of promoting this boycott is affecting not only the business of films but also the lives of distributors and theater owners who depend on it. As the film industry is slowly recovering after the corona pandemic, this practice of boycott is taking the film industry back to the underworld.
Bollywood in particular has taken a bad turn. While the failures of past films like ‘Runway 34’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Heerobandi 2’, ‘Bachan Pandey’, ‘Samrat Prithviraj’, ‘Dhak’, ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ and ‘Shamshera F’ are eroding Bollywood, Lal Singh Satta is also involved in this.
What a bad practice to ask to ignore another film just because you praise a film you hate most of all. The same happened with the Hindi remake of ‘Vikram Veda’. After ‘Lal Singh Sadha’ Boycott, ‘Boycott VikramVedha’ (#BoycottVikramVedha) trended. The reason for this is that when Hrithik Roshan praised the film ‘Lal Singh Sadha’, netizens are calling to ignore Vikram Veda, which is played by Hrithik.
This trend which is now becoming serious in Bollywood is posing a huge threat to the film industry. Aamir Khan, who finally apologized before the release of Lal Singh Chadha, added, ‘I didn’t sleep for 48 hours because of the fear mixed with the anticipation of the film. “I will sleep only after the release of the film,” he said. In that way Boycott only disturbed his sleep?
This politics of exclusion aside, the argument of ‘content’ drought in Bollywood has to be considered. After the advent of OTT, the taste of Bollywood fans has also improved. Their fascination with conventional masala, templated cinema has waned and they prefer content-heavy cinema. This is why many films made in South India are dubbed and dubbed in Bollywood. One cannot ignore the idea that Bollywood can only survive if it changes everything from remaking popular films and following template screenplays to original cinema.