Content is the problem, not #boycott calls

At the beginning of this season's Koffee With Karan, host Karan Johar with his usual candour admitted that he wasn't sure if the chat show would return. "We, as an industry, were vilified. We were absolutely put into the dungeons for two years. It wasn't an easy time, a snake emoji would come out every time Koffee with Karan was mentioned. At one point, I even thought that I would never come back with this show because there was a lot of attack," he said in his conversation with actors Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh on the first episode of the show, telecast this July.

Johar was talking about the Twitter trend #BoycottBollywood that keeps re-appearing time and again. It originated sometime around the untimely demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Unlike most "trends", this one hasn't died, instead it gets a new lease of life just before the release of any big budget movie. At the time of writing this article, it was trending along with #BoycottKaranJohar and #BoycottBrahmastra. With films mounted on budgets that go into hundreds of crores starting to bite the dust at the box office, one would wonder if the boycott call was powerful enough to be the cause. Is it? "No," the film fraternity echoes unanimously.

Karan Johar

"There was a boycott call for Liger. But if you look at the statistics, the preview show of Liger starring Vijay Devarakonda, who is a newcomer in Bollywood, had 48 per cent occupancy. This is an extraordinary number [for him]. When it comes to the film's opening in India in Hindi, including Thursday's preview show and the release day, it earned a box office collection of over R6.5 crore, which is again a very good number," says chief programming officer of INOX Leisure Limited Rajender Singh Jyala. "When the content is not up to the mark, the film bombs the moment reviews are out. If it's good, then whether there are boycott calls or heavy rain, nothing stops people from going to the theatres," he says. Jyala, however, doesn't dismiss it entirely. "We can't quantify the effect of the boycott call. If it didn't exist, Liger's occupancy rate may have been better but to what extent, we can't say."

Calling these trends on social media platforms far from ground reality, film writer and director Milap Zaveri, says, "These are all Twitter trends, which come at the drop of a hat... the virtual world is not the same as the real world." The common man, he says, has no time to get into this whole debate. "Years ago, there was a boycott call for PK [2014 film starring Aamir Khan] as well, but people went in huge numbers and made it a superhit. The films that haven't worked lately, lacked merit," says Zaveri, adding, "The pre-booking numbers of Brahmāstra look very promising, proving that people will watch what excites them."

Radhika Nihalani and Ashok Swain

Film exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi agrees. Calling "underwhelming content" the primary reason behind the failure of films released recently at the box office, he says. "Most films that received a cold response were those that were conceptualised, and made before the pandemic or through the pandemic. During the last two years, we have been exposed to content from all parts of the world and our taste has evolved." Rathi also states that the boycott culture has also to do with the insensitivity that has been portrayed by a certain section of the film fraternity. "Through the course of the pandemic people were struggling with grief and health emergencies, but a few in the industry were insensitive with what they were posting on social media. That created a divide between them and the public at large. Perhaps we can learn a lesson or two from the south stars, who instead of posting about their luxurious lives were a lot more proactive in helping people," he says.

Professor of peace and conflict research at the department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden, Ashok Swain, said that Bollywood was under the impression that remaining quiet and "taking an occasional selfie" with politicians, would "allow them business as usual". But that has actually come back to bite the industry. "It is communal politics," he says bluntly. "They forgot that for an ethno-religious nationalist, there is no grey zone - either you are one of them or you are an enemy."

Made on a budget of Rs 180 crore, Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha managed to collect only Rs 127.37 crore. According to film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film opened to Rs 11.70 crore and its five day total of Rs 45.83 crore was less than the opening day collection of Thugs Of Hindostan, labelled a big flop

Swain brings politics into the picture when we ask about the origins of this kind of a movement. "Earlier, Hindu right-wing forces had often used boycott threats to keep Pakistani artistes away from Bollywood in the name of nationalism. Since 2014, they have started to target Indian actors individually. Initially, in the name of nationalism, and these days, branding them as anti-Hindu. The ‘boycott Bollywood' is nothing but to force the Hindi film industry to become another propaganda machine for the Hindu right-wing forces."

But Rathi disagrees. "This is one country where the public has absolutely no bias with regards to caste, creed or religion when it comes to cinema. It has created superstars of people who have respected public mandate, be it Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan or Akshay Kumar. People reward those who create content with the sole agenda of respecting their time, money and effort. If you do that, people love you back." Asked about the recent criticism that Alia Bhatt has faced for being Mahesh Bhatt's daughter, who trolls point has a soft corner for Muslims, or because of step-brother Rahul Bhatt, who allegedly had connections with David Headley, accused of plotting terror attacks in India, he says, "If Alia is being questioned, it is important to note that she saw a massive hit with Gangubai. This squashes the whole narrative."

Manoj Desai and Akshaye Rathi

Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha, which was made with a budget of R180 crore failed to cover the cost let alone make any profit. Film exhibitor Vivek Chauhan blames it on the genre and not the boycott calls. "It was a 1994 film, belonging to a genre that no longer excites people, which is why even Rakshabandhan, which released on the same day, failed miserably. Second, the word of mouth wasn't convincing enough to save the day either," shares Chauhan, adding that trolls don't really affect film business. "If somebody would have come and told me that Laal Singh Chaddha is exceptionally good, nothing in world could have stopped me or anyone from watching that film."

Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh feels that the industry is in denial if it thinks that the boycott calls haven't affected the business. "The fact is, these boycott calls have made a dent and impacted the box office numbers of Laal Singh Chaddha specifically... Face it!," he tweeted last month. With regards to the box office number, Adarsh had shared that the film opened to Rs 11.70 crore and its five-day total of Rs 45.83 crore was less than the opening day collection of Thugs Of Hindostan, which is considered a flop. It collected Rs 50.75 crore.

Sushant Singh Rajput

As per reports, Khan is reported to have waived off his fees for Laal Singh Chaddha and also absorb all losses of the film.

Film exhibitor Manoj Desai blames "apparent arrogance" that people in the showbiz have shown off late as he says, "abhimaan toh Ravan ka bhi nahin chala tha." Putting the onus on the lack of good content, Desai, who is the executive director of G7 multiplex and Maratha Mandir theatre, puts it bluntly - "Mujhe hashtag business toh samajh mein aata nahin hai par janta ko acchi picture chahiye [I don't understand this hashtag business but people want to watch a good film]." He reminisces of a time when films were made by directors like Yash Chopra, Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra who celebratedgolden jubilees of their movies. "There must be a reason why Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has been running for 27 years at Maratha Mandir. It was content. The quality of content, continuity, editing, writing, sound system, production has only seen a fall."

Vishek Chauhan and Milap Zaveri

All the backlash, could have caused the stars to react poorly as well. Bhatt is believed to have said that if people don't like her, they should not watch her film. Johar too said that whom he wants to cast is nobody's business. "I can do whatever the f''k I want," he could be seen saying in the clipping that has now gone viral on social media. The veteran exhibitor says "arrogance" doesn't go a long way. "They have become irresponsible. Of course, masses will react to such statements." He is of the opinion that artistes should have nothing to do with politics and only keep to their work.

In the business of communications and PR, Radhika Nihalani calls the trend rather unfortunate. The founder of Think Ink Communications and Think Talkies says the belittling of the industry, initiated by nameless-faceless people on social media is uncalled for. "I do believe that content that resonates with people will work… eventually. But trends can influence people to not go and watch a particular film. Opening numbers can get affected and then when a film doesn't open well, the word of mouth automatically spreads that because a film hasn't opened well, it isn't a good film. Hence, more people don't want to go and watch the film. It's a vicious cycle!"

Vijay Deverakonda was lambasted for his allegedly ‘arrogant' remarks just before the release of his film Liger with Ananya Panday. He said 'dekh lenge' on boycott calls

While Rathi doesn't think that a boycott trend on social media is making much of a difference to a film's destiny, he agrees that the call amplifies the moment it is picked up by news channels for prime time debates. "It is sad that it affects the film industry, which is not limited to a handful of people or a few filmmakers but lakhs and lakhs of people - exhibitors, distributors, people who work on the production set, who do post-production and many others whose livelihoods depend on
the industry."

Inox's chief programming officer Jyala is hoping that Brahmāstra and Vikram Vedha, both scheduled to release this month, will bring some respite. "It is a matter of one or two big hits."

Rs 6.5 cr
The box office collection of Liger in Hindi on day one