ARE BOLLYWOOD STARS SCARED OF BOYCOTT CULTURE?

From nepotism to celebrity statements to their gestures and a lot more; netizens are not happy with Bollywood and there are multiple reasons behind it. Whenever a big film is all set to release #Boycott starts trending on social media, and this has become quite regular this year. Many films have faced the wrath of netizens and now, it looks like a few more are going to face the negativity. The free market has taken over, and thus, you have the likes of Shamshera opening to empty halls while Marvel releases get a show as early as 6:30 in the morning. The audience can no longer be taken for granted, even if the actor gets to interview the Prime Minister.

If the effort is shoddy, the result would be proportional, as evident by the failure of the movie Samrat Prithviraj. The free market wants good cinema, not singletone, politically, but something worth the bucks. The last few months have been tough for Bollywood. From falling prey to the #BoycottBollywood trend with every other movie to delivering box office duds, the film industry is struggling to get back to its glory days. Recently the Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ was released last Thursday and the film also faced a lot of backlash on social media.

Shahrukh and Aamir Khan are passé. The violence-prone North Indian heartland wants testosterone-drenched action, not Bollywood’s content-rich films of today. South Cinema is filling the void with spectacles drenched in excessive machismo. Whether it’s heroism, star power, content, marketing or the larger-than-life portrayal of characters, South Indian films have mastered the art of capturing audiences pan-India. We are not saying it, the numbers are. But while people in the industry have become more and more careful about their public image, experts say boycott calls may not affect box office results too much.