‘It Is A Passing Phase’: Javed Akhtar Discusses The Boycott Trend In Bollywood

Javed Akhtar recently spoke on the effects of “cancel culture” in the film industry.

Javed Akhtar Discusses The Boycott Trend In Bollywood

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New Delhi: Javed Akhtar recently spoke on the effects of “cancel culture” in the film industry. Box office failures for recent hits like Laal Singh Chaddha, Shamshera, and Raksha Bandhan followed calls for their boycott on social media. The public is reacting negatively to the Hindi cinema industry in particular by boycotting movies and superstars. With regards to this topic, Javed stated his doubt that such appeals would ever be successful.

Talking to ETimes, Akhtar told, “It is a passing phase. It is very evident that it doesn’t work. If the film is good and is appreciated by the audience, it will work. If it is not good and not appreciated by the audience, it won’t work. I don’t think this kind of announcement of cancel culture and boycott works at all.”

These online movements had an indirect effect on Aamir Khan's recent film 'Laal Singh Chaddha'. Other films that were projected to do well at the box office but didn't, including Akshay Kumar's 'Raksha Bandhan' and Vijay Deverakonda's 'Liger', also fell victim to similar online movements.

Swara Bhasker also discussed boycotting Bollywood films recently. She said, “I don’t know how much boycott trends actually affect the business. Alia Bhatt got a lot of negative attention on social media after Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic suicide, which was of course completely unfair — the kind of accusations that were being made about a lot of Bollywood A-Listers. At that time, Sadak 2 had been released, it got a lot of boycott calls and negative publicity and it did very badly,” I don’t know how much boycott trends actually affect the business. Alia Bhatt got a lot of negative attention on social media after Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic suicide, which was of course completely unfair — the kind of accusations that were being made about a lot of Bollywood A-Listers. At that time, Sadak 2 had been released, it got a lot of boycott calls and negative publicity and it did very badly.”