Every day we can see the “Boycott Bollywood” trending at the top on Twitter. There is a certain kind of animosity among people towards them.
What’s common between Lal Singh Chaddha, Ek Villain Returns, Raksha Bandhan and Liger? A few things, like they all were star-studded movies, they all were highly anticipated and they all had the same fate i.e. were removed from the theatre within a week or two.
The Hindi film industry or Bollywood, as we call it popularly, is facing one of its worst phases of history. All the movies that are released one after another are bombing like anything. Only Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, and The Kashmir files were among those minority movies that were showered by the love of the audience.
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Background
When lockdown ended in 2021, there was a ray of hope among, already suffering Cinema Hall owners. They were hoping that their good old days will now be back.
There came Sooryavanshi by the blockbuster director Rohit Shetty and superstar Akshay Kumar. It earned around 195 crores in the domestic market (Box office India), becoming the highest grosser in India.
However, these were the last few happy days of cinema theatres. Since then, things have gone downhill for Bollywood. The biggies like Akshay and Aamir started giving flops, and the upcoming star Vijay Deverkonda, who was being hyped up so big, couldn’t create any magic with Liger. One of the reasons behind this is the “Boycott” trend by people.
Why this boycott?
Boycott is something that has always been used historically as a non-violent tool to protest. Gandhiji and co used it to promote Swadeshi and now apparently, moviegoers are using it to protest against the Hindi movie industry.
Every day we can see the “Boycott Bollywood” trending at the top on Twitter. There is a certain kind of animosity among people towards them.
Thanks to social media, earlier clips by celebrities are being used to create an environment. Aamir, in 2015 made statements like his wife feared living in India. Thanks to the cheap internet, this video got recirculated recently and Aamir faced a lot of criticism.
Netizens are also not happy with the portrayal of God and their mocking in his 2014 blockbuster PK. Then we have Akshay Kumar, who until recently was a hit machine and was going on a hit spree.
He too had started facing hiccups due to
- Â bad choice of movies and
- criticism by the social media calling him various names. He’s also being criticised for his 2012 hit movie Oh My God.
Although the actors and other creatives are continuously denying the role of “boycott” in flopping or movies, the impact is pretty visible.
However, it’s not just the Boycott that has impacted the movie industry. There are a few other reasons too like the surge in popularity of the Southern Superstars and the exploits of the OTT.
The phenomenon that is South
The highest opener in the Hindi movie industry is KGF 2, which is a dubbed movie. Allu Arjun’s Pushpa became the rage in the North. The seasoned Rajamouli’s RRR created havoc not only in India but overseas too. It seems like the southern industry has taken over the Hindi movie industry too.
“Over the Top”
The other reason is the rise of the OTT scene in India. Apart from leading players like Netflix, Amazon prime and Hotstar, there are numerous smaller yet popular OTT platforms like MX player, Alt Balaji, Hoi Choi, Voot, Zee 5 and many others.
All these platforms have given the audience multiple options on their platter at a very cheap price. The Indian audience is more exposed to world art and cinema. They are getting the best of the world and they are now realising that many movies here are simply mediocre or subpar. So they are avoiding spending money on them. The lockdown saw a surge in OTT subscriptions and illegal downloads.
The audience became too comfortable in their homes and now going to the theatres seems like a less favourable option. Many people are more comfortable watching it on their phones, tabs or laptops than watching it in theatres. Quality wise too, the better movies are released on OTT platforms.
Not only movies but some great shows are also getting streamed. The Family man, Mirzapur was loved by the audience. This has impacted the movie business too.
The way out
Producers too are trying different ways now and are releasing their movies directly on OTTs. Akshay released Laxmi and Cutputtli on Hotstar. Jahnvi had Good Luck Jerry, and Alia too had Darlings on Netflix. Seems like actors are adjusting themselves according to the demand of the audiences.
Actors have stopped saying anything too opinionated. We don’t know how good or bad it is but for now, they have opted to be on the safer side.
Conclusion
Nobody knows for how long this boycott trend will go on but it has surely damaged the business of the movies.
We are in a time where opinions are to be kept within oneself or each word is being uttered with much care. Well, movie lovers and distributors are of hope that this ends soon.
We hope that too and let’s see what the future holds for the Hindi movie industry.
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