What powers the Boycott Bollywood movement and why is it working : By Sharmi Adhikary
Sharmi Adhikary
Though Karan Malhotra’s period action drama Shamshera depicted the story of a dacoit tribe and their fight for independence against the British, the Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt starrer tanked massively. This failure was symptomatic of the audience’s ire at the rabid anti-Hindu stance in the script. The hero is shown as an atheist, while the villain sports the shikha and the elaborate tilak worn by upper-caste Brahmins. Since soldiers recruited by the colonizers were not encouraged to wear their religion so prominently on their uniform sleeves, this forced maligning of Hindu iconography was clearly directed at expressing Hinduphobia. The audience, Yash Raj Films should have realised by now, would not be duped so easily anymore.
The axe, to be honest, did not fall only on Shamshera. It was just one of the large Bollywood clans to be booted out without much ado for spreading Hindu hatred and channelling Islamist ideologies backed by black mafia money. The upcoming big-ticket release Pathaan seems to be facing flak even before its first show. The diktat is loud and clear without any interest in the storyline. What is this obsession with pathaans since so many years, the same rapacious group that over centuries raped Bharatiya women, brutalized its people and robbed our land! People seem to declare that if a change is to be brought, Indian cinema is to be enjoyed holistically, a civilization salvaged and saved, the entire industry needs to be dismantled and recalibrated. There has to be a start at least!
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SATYAMSHOT 
January 5, 2023 at 10:05 PM
Thanks Munna, appreciate it.
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January 6, 2023 at 9:52 AM
I am so surprised a mainstream publication like India today had the courage to publish this article .
Bharat Badal Raha Hai !!
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January 6, 2023 at 10:24 AM
With two per cent people (of the entire movie-going tribe in India who watch Hindi cinema) involved in the boycott Bollywood calls in an urban chatroom, the film industry cannot really blame that perc…
Read more at: https://organiser.org/2023/01/06/103617/opinion/boycott-call-decoding-the-bollywood-content-jinx/
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January 6, 2023 at 10:26 AM
Another superb piece by the same author-
Sharmi Adhikary !!
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January 6, 2023 at 3:54 PM
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January 6, 2023 at 1:37 AM
Ranbir fighting against the British is ironic since he’s married to one.
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January 6, 2023 at 1:50 AM
There would have been calls to boycott Pathaan even if it was named after a, say, hindu prince.
The boycott gang worked feverishly even against Brahmastra by digging videos where Ranbir claimed to like beef. Incidentally, the trolls ignored VKA’s interview where he claimed the same.
They just need an excuse to boycott Bollywood because of political reasons. We should stop condoning and defending gundagardi where they are ravage public property just because they talk of a reigious ideology we believe in.
Nahi to har baar bewajah chutiya katega
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January 6, 2023 at 8:28 AM
Boycott is nothing new for SRK films, many of his films faced it. People will find a reason, take Billu Barber for example, there was controversy with “Barber” being in the movie name, SRK had to remove “Barber” from the movie title and keep it just “Billu”.
“We should stop condoning and defending gundagardi where they are ravage public property just because they talk of a reigious ideology we believe in”
The rapist are welcomed with open arms by these same group, you’re expecting too much…
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January 6, 2023 at 9:16 AM
Perhaps one of the darkest times in the political history of post 1991 India where we got an incompetent ruling administration that’s more interested in boycotting films and fueling division via online trolls than tackling inflation and an opponent that’s so drunken on their imbecile highness prince’s fiefdom that they’re willing to forgo the entire political party in the process.
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January 6, 2023 at 9:34 AM
There are more good people in India (when i say good i mean like 90%), then bad ones.
The problem is the 10% are always very loud, aggressive and due to their rowdy/gunda behavior, they’re able to neutralize big portion of the 90% because those 90% are family people, with decent jobs and don’t want any trouble so they stay quite.
This goes for majority of countries thru out the world where very small percentage disrupts the larger population.
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January 6, 2023 at 12:40 PM
https://organiser.org/2023/01/06/103617/opinion/boycott-call-decoding-the-bollywood-content-jinx/
Finally at least someone from the boycott gang of imbeciles has the courage to accept that their irrelevant existence is only 2% of the film watching diaspora (or perhaps lower) and the real reason for films tanking is the lack of universal appeal and substandard content.
However…
1. “Independent filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who courted not just success with The Kashmir Files in 2022 (his Buddha in a Traffic Jam and The Tashkent Files were sleeper hits) -Vivek Ranjan isn’t an independent filmmaker. Far from it! His work includes outright commercial duds like Chocolate, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Hate Story among other. Buddha in a traffic jam barely found a release in theaters, forget being a sleeper hit.
2. “While the makers might have banked on the very urban storyline to grab the attention of the plex audience, the negative reaction explained that people were fed up with the normalising of drugs, depression” – drugs, sex and depression is a well known reality among not just urban youth but youngsters from smaller towns as well. There’s nothing in Gehraiyaan “normalizing” drugs (the fact that its a poor film is a different matter) and for the author’s info, Gehraiyaan is one of India’s most watched films on Amazon in 2022.
3. “Sleeper hits such as Jaadugar (starring Jitendra Kumar) and heartwarming series like Panchayat, Gullak, Ghar Waapsi and the brave Avrodh: The Seige Within have proved that you don’t need any Khans, Kapoors and Bhatts to deliver a hit.” -half baked statement again! Very smartly she’s avoided acknowledging the fact that India’s most popular OTT shows are Family Man, Sacred Games, Mirzapur, Scam 92 and Special ops (Sacred games & Mirzapur are terrible shows imo) since that’s going against her master’s propaganda. Avrodh is a poor man’s Uri which ironically has come out of Bollywood itself. So much for her pro OTT rants, the medium that’s not penetrated beyond 20% of India’s viewing population!
4. “The rabid Communist agendas peddled through Malayalam cinema is evident and ingrained. The anti-Brahminical threads running in Tamil cinema is a constant” -yet her right wing master’s wouldn’t bother planting IT trolls with #Boycottkollywood or #BoycottMollywood hash tags since they’re well aware they’re a complete zero in the 2 southern most states and their politics of lies & deceit cannot get them votes there. So obviously let’s target independent India’s most popular film industry viz Bollywood (another matter that without Bollywood bigwigs assistance & “charity” the likes of Bahubali, RRR, KGF, 2.0 etc would be nowhere in the pan India scene).
5. “For instance, the recently successful Suzhal – The Vortex is a series focused on exemplary cinematic brilliance with a smattering of defamations against indigenous Hindu traditions and rituals” -they’re indigenous “Tamizh” traditions (not the way the right wing identifies Hinduism), the cult that’s completely & rabidly opposed to Hindutva politics. As for the show Suzhal, its the events that took place during the course of the tradition. In no way does a horrific event during the course of a tradition malign a tradition itself (a murder or a rape committed during Diwali or Christmas wouldn’t malign these festivals). Whosoever makes them writers and reviewers?
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January 6, 2023 at 12:56 PM
Adhikary is a far right equivalent of Barkha Dutt & Karan Thapar. In short -a rotten piece of shit.
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January 18, 2023 at 10:35 AM
Ranvir Shorey brilliant discussion:
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January 29, 2023 at 6:17 PM
Extremely well balanced and brilliant 14 tweets thread-
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January 29, 2023 at 6:20 PM
Entire Thread-
The purpose of writing this thread is to give a balanced opinion on Bollywood boycotts. I want to take a balanced view on this.Let me start by saying that if our religion or culture is shown in a negative way or ridiculed,then it’s our democratic right to protest peacefully 1/14
or boycott the movie. The problem arises when a few Twitter accounts think that there are a mob and they can sabotage any film. This is purely delusional. I feel u can target rampant elements in the film industry but to target the entire industry is uncalled for. Will it 2/14
work when there is no other source of entertainment in this country except cricket or movies? Do we actually think a few Twitter/ SM accounts can actually take on an entire film industry with so much of money and power. 3/14
Yes, a genuine protest like the one in Lal Singh Chadha does become a mass movement n such a movement will have adverse impacts on the films box office prospects but that’s a genuine protest. 4/14
A lot of times a manufactured protest turns into a genuine protest if messaging & the time is right. Bollywood was going through a massive crisis with its content, messaging and budgets 5/14
During this time, a lot of protests worked. But was this the only reason? No, the films we saw were crap. If the films were good, then the budget failed & if both was ok then the trailer was not good enough to entice the audience to watch the film. For a film to work, 6/14
All these factors ( content, budget & trailer) has to work. Coming back to boycotts, my opinion is boycotts that are a good tool to keep wokeism in check but when you start overplaying your hand forgetting the basic economics principle of Diminishing Marginal Utility 7/14
U will end up diluting this tool. Fatigue will set in. People will get bored and movement will lose steam. I mean to start with the whole initial protests about Pathan were silly n plain stupid. I would have been ok if the protests would have happened after 8/14
watching the film on the ISI angle or the Veer Chakra angle. Both were good enough reasons to protest. But now they can’t protest about this coz the initial protest or boycott calls has failed. This is what happens with a uncoordinated mob, who start with a cause which 9/14
s very successful but slowly & gradually become intoxicated with power and become bullies. A bully without a cause can never win in a country like India, we have always been a country that gives a lot of importance to spiritual beliefs. We are good people. On the other 10/14
hand I fail to understand Bollywoods obsession with ISI. This rogue organisation ( ISI) is responsible for all terrorists attacks in India. They have put our citizens at risk How can any person who loves India normalise the ISI. This is sinister n unacceptable. 11/14
Insulting our soldiers too is unacceptable. Nip the problem at the bud. Issue guidelines to the censor board for this. Any film depiction of the army or agencies should get the clearance from the agencies. But once the film gets a clearance then it’s a governments 12/14
duty to provide protection. Law and order cannot be compromised irrespective of the ideology. Law & order gets compromised when a protest or a boycott gets violent. U can’t ransack cinemas, tear posters or damage public property. Social media trends are okay. 13/14
On the whole I would say limited boycotts ( peaceful) with the right cause are an effective tool to keep wokeism in check but if this is misused it will have no impact & end up only making a noisy social media campaign or empower bullies who will end up being extortionists 14/14
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January 29, 2023 at 6:23 PM
Another Good One 4 tweets thread :
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January 29, 2023 at 6:24 PM
Here are all the tweets together :
Say what you will. Boycott Bollywood with a hashtag or without is a people’s movement that has found momentum. So much so, that that the once-mighty are now paying/throwing big money to have their film declared a resounding hit within the first two days of its release.
This nervousness itself tells you all that it has to. No doubt, we all enjoy entertainment but it has to be said – No Longer At Our Expense. Give us good cinematography, screenplay, stories that touch the pulse of the people & the audience will return to cinema halls.
The days of lazy formulas & formats, cliched scripts with derision reserved for one section of the population is long over. Also, considering all that has happened & continues to happen with Pakistan one has to be completely moronic or is it completely disrespectful to think an Indian audience will take kindly to some storylines. SERIOUSLY?! The sooner that is recognised the faster Bollywood can return to business.
Till then the ordinary Indian will think twice before spending money on something that chips away his dignity irrespective of the message being delivered by a scantily clad top ‘star’ on all fours, twerking her butt.
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January 30, 2023 at 2:00 PM
Q&A with GOB
Al Jazeera’s question: Why are you boycotting Pathaan?
We are assuming it is the people’s reaction to our work what you are referring to as ‘boycotting Pathaan’.
Or do you mean why are we not watching Pathaan? Well, that’s because we are not willing to pay for a product that offers nothing constructive to the brain and instead fills it with plagiarized nonsense. On top of it, it seems to have subtle agendas contrary to the reality. For instance, we find the plot of a noble ISI agent and an Afghani Pathan joining hands to kill a rogue RAW officer decorated with a gallantry award for battlefield, on mountains of Afghanistan (Hindu Kush is the most prominent mountain range in Afghanistan; the word literally means where Hindus are killed) highly objectionable.
Al Jazeera’s question: Do you think the boycotting has had any influence on the film’s business?
Gems of Bollywood reply: Only filmmakers and their investors can answer this, provided that they want to. However, if it is not affecting the film’s business in any negative way, as asserted by many, then Bollywood should encourage this harmless, non-violent and perfectly legal creativity because they are champions of freedom of expression.
However, recently, Suneil Shetty was seen requesting Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to talk to prime minister Narendra Modi and help stop ‘boycott Bollywood’ hashtags on social media. Before that, actor Arjun Kapoor was seen saying in an interview that Bollywood made a “mistake” by remaining mum on ‘boycott Bollywood’ campaigns on social media. It’s no secret that Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chadha and Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj did not see crowds from day one itself. Now, well-known film analysts like Komal Nahta are calling alleged first-day good run of Pathaan film as “slap on boycott Bollywood gangs”.
We can no way know for sure because Bollywood finances are not in public domain. Given their past alleged connections with the Underworld, and given the pro-ISI propaganda in many films, probably ISI or Bollywood insiders would know this better.
However, let this be noted that the anti-Bollywood movement is not about forcing anyone to harm Bollywood financially. It is about spreading awareness on negative aspects of Bollywood and encouraging people to stay away from it. It is just like Satyagraha during Freedom movement.
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January 30, 2023 at 2:00 PM
Link
https://gemsofbollywood.com/gems-of-bollywood-was-sent-a-list-of-questions-by-al-jazeera-on-film-pathaan-our-response/
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February 7, 2023 at 12:19 PM
Nice balanced analysis
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February 13, 2023 at 6:07 PM
The Kashmir Files would have been destroyed by the left if it went to the Oscars somehow or gained any kind of international exposure. Even an Israeli of all people decimated it at a very public platform and that too in India.
In fact, if RRR had been about Indians fighting the Mughals instead of the British, it would not have gained so many fans in the west.
If Mr. Agnihotri thinks India is full of urban naxals, then he should really step out and go to countries like US, Canada and England. It’s even worse.
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February 13, 2023 at 6:24 PM
Oh come on.. do you have an exponential growth of radical Islamists in the US post 9/11? Do you have their population rabidly growing at the rate of noughts in Canada? Do you have secular forces attempting to sabotage internal security in North America or demanding cessation of states? I doubt it..
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February 13, 2023 at 6:31 PM
Has the US ever had a genocide of native Christians? Since its a movie forum, when did Hollywood ever have a muslim superstar? Forget celebrating his identity in a film as rubbish as Pathaan.. Govt of India can actually learn a thing or two from the post 9/11 US
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February 13, 2023 at 7:24 PM
Obviously it’s not the exact same situation but there are many minorities taking advantage of the overly “liberal” western society. I can offer numerous examples but don’t want to get into it on a Bollywood public forum. Let’s just say celebrating Valentine’s Day has been banned in many high schools in Toronto but both Eid and Diwali are openly celebrated. That’s messed up imo.
Speaking of cessation, Khalistan is already a reality here and is openly endorsed in Toronto.
Minority appeasing is a big business in the west because their birth rate is declining and they need immigrants badly.
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February 14, 2023 at 7:58 PM
Nice gesture by Shreyas !
There are too many factors while one is shooting… which includes one’s mindset during a sequence, especially action scenes, the director’s requirements, the time constraints & a lot of other things,” the actor wrote in his apology note.
But this is not me explaining or justifying myself for what you see in the video, all I can say is this was completely unintentional & am very apologetic for the same. I should’ve seen that & brought to the director’s notice. Nevertheless, I would never intentionally hurt anyone’s sentiments or repeat something like this,” he added.
A Twitter account named ‘Gems of Bollywood Fan’ shared the video from the Priyadarshan-directed film on Sunday.
https://www.ndtv.com/feature/actor-shreyas-talpade-apologises-for-2012-movie-scene-says-it-was-completely-unintentional-3782030#pfrom=home-ndtv_ustrending
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February 14, 2023 at 7:59 PM
Bharat Badal Raha Hai !!
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