Bollywood and everything related to Bollywood, irrespective of having a big star cast or a huge name, has suffered in recent times!! For a few years, the slow burner by the name of ‘nepotism’ affected the growth of the film industry. For many it would seem that ever since the death of the actor Sushant Singh Rajput, there has been a new pattern that has been formed. It is that of #boycottBollywood. If a film stars a star kid, the film is sure to get boycotted. The remakes of other language films fail to attract the public as there is total domination of the ‘boycott’ trend. Movies starring Muslim actors have been boycotted. The year 2022 has seen a lot of big names and big films going unnoticed, with the theatres picturizing a very empty and jarring look. The film industry has been rattled by the failure of a few big-ticket films in the last few months. The result of the failures has more been reported due to the boycotts rather than the lack in content.
We have had a big list of films that have failed to emerge big in the last few months. All of them have been plagued by the #boycott trends. The threatening messages and alerts on social media have been taken way too seriously, with no acceptance whatsoever for many films.
Here is IWMBuzz.com giving our reader a list of such Bollywood films that have been affected by the boycott trend.
In 2018, Padmaavat was perhaps the first big movie to get beaten black and blue by the boycott trend. This Deepika Padukone starrer film was embroiled in several controversies both before and after its release. It received flak for an alleged intimate scene between the Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and Hindu queen Padmavati, the songs Ghoomar was criticised because Padukone’s belly was visible. This was the first of the movies that actually kickstarted the boycott trend in Bollywood.
Sadak 2 in 2020 starring Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur was touted to be a biggie. It was the sequel of the evergreen love tale Sadak made in 1991 with Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt. The film’s trailer was released in August 2020 on YouTube which soon became the second most disliked video on the platform with the ongoing nepotism controversy in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
If there is one actor who has taken the worst beating with the boycott trend, it has to be Akshay Kumar. Samraat Prithviraj started this scary phase for the popular actor. From the time the trailer was released to the time the film was released, everything about the film was ridiculed. From Akshay’s casting to his statement about Indian history textbooks have been criticized. “BoycottSamratPrithviraj” trended big time as the film was released.
When Akshay Kumar’s next, Bachchhan Paandey released, trends of boycott become louder and bigger. Messages like ‘Dare not to shadow a Hindu’, started looming large. The trends of #BoycottBachchhan Paandey happened, as the masses felt that it was maligning the Hindu Dharma on the whole.
Shamshera the mighty Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt starrer film was a debacle for everyone associated with it. Again, it was the ‘Hindu demeaning concepts will not be tolerated’ messages appearing all over. The result was that the movie failed to even have a decent run at the box-office.
Darlings the recent film faced flak in spite of having some amazing performances. The film starring Shefali Shah, Alia Bhatt and Vijay Varma was touted to be content that glorified women’s abuse. The boycott trends were again floating big.
Laal Singh Chadha, the big Aamir Khan film which was slated to be the Hindi version of Forrest Gump, fell flat at the box-office. The film was charged with disrespecting the Indian Army and hurting the Hindu sentiments. This film’s debacle seems to be lowered down the morale of the Bollywood industry.
The latest film to face flak owing to boycott is Dobaaraa, starring Taapsee Pannu. Also, trends are strong on #BoycottHrithikRoshan as Vikram Vedha is all set for release.
A lot of big names in Bollywood have already suffered owing to this boycott trend. We wonder how the Bollywood industry will survive the coming months and year!! What is the rightful solution to this tragic development? We are all very certain that the failures of such big ticket films has already created a big dent in the economy of the industry. What more will we see in the months to come? Is there an end to this threatening phenomenon?
