Before seeking PM's help, Suniel Shetty should wake the Bollywood up to get rid of Boycott trends

Not PM Modi or UP CM Yogi, Suniel Shetty should first make his fraternity to open its eyes to clean up the mess.

Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty's request to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to get rid of 'Boycott Bollywood' trends on social media which has brought back the spotlight on the core issue the India's leading film industry is facing.

At a meeting in Mumbai, he requested Yogi to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in clearing the stigma around Bollywood. "It pains me to see this stigma. Ninety-nine per cent of the people here are good. So, please Yogi ji, take the lead and talk to our prime minister about erasing this stigma," he added.

After the meeting, while taking to a channel Shetty said that there is politics behind the boycott trend and "some group is working against us... my only request is to stop it."

Ever since then, the actor has been trending on Twitter. If he has seen, probably he might have got answer for his request by now from netizens.

If not, let us explain him why people are up in arms against Bollywood

Firstly, he has said that it (boycott trend) is politicised, thus mistaking people's genuine angry towards the film industry. The anguish towards Bollywood is real and the industry has not paid attention towards what netizens are saying repeatedly on social media sites in the last few years. In fact, like Shetty many have downplayed it assuming that there is politics behind the boycott trend.

So what per centage of Indians are active on Twitter? How many of them go to theatres based on the social media trends? The number of Twitter users across the country amounted to nearly 2.4 crore in 2022. Even if there is truth in Shetty's words that there is politics behind the trends, can such small group of people influence whole of a country? Then, how did Ranbir Kapoor's 'Brahmastra' minted over Rs 300 crore despite facing boycott call from the same set of people?

If Shetty has done little home work before seeking Yogi's help, he would have understood the genuine angry of Hindi cinegoers. The strong anti-Bollywood sentiment is rooted in the film industry's lack of respect for the Hindu sentiments and their anti-India stands. For decades, the Hindi film industry had a free run to offend Hindus and the majority woke up to this fact only in the recent years.

In a bid to defame the ruling dispensation, Aamir Khan in 2015 claimed that Kiran (then wife) feared staying in the country due to growing "intolerance". "As an individual, as part of this country as a citizen, we read in the papers what is happening, we see it on the news and certainly, I have been alarmed. I can't deny. I have been alarmed by a number of incidents," PTI quoted him as saying at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.

The nationalists had a reason to get upset because Aamir Khan had nothing to say when there were series of bomb blast across the country between 1990s and 2010. If it was not enough, Khan went ahead to make 'PK' to mock the Hindu religion. Although the movie became hit, it hurt the large section of Hindus. The genuinely hurt people have been asking him whether he has the courage to make a film on the radicalisation of Islam. Will he or his coterie ever make one on it?

Likewise, there have been stars who have hurt nationalists through their anti-India remarks. Shah Rukh Khan did 'My Name is Khan' to throw light on the alleged Islamophobic discrimination after the September 11 attacks. Even he never felt the need to make a film on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus. At last, a filmmaker like Vivek Agnihotri without A-list actors decided to tell a story on it and the movie went on to become a blockbuster.

The Real Issues

Although such instances made the majority realise that Bollywood had been taking them for granted, one of the major issue was lack of originality in the content produced by Bollywood which has kept the cinegoers away from theatres. Last year, the combined collection of South movies like 'RRR', 'KGF 2' and 'Kantara' alone stood over Rs 2,800 crore. The heroes are all new faces to Hindi audience, yet cine-goers did not complain and made those flicks blockbusters in the Hindi market.

If a small film 'Kantara', which was originally meant to be made for Kannada audience, can strike gold, why Bollywood films have not pulled the audience to theatre like earlier?

The majority is upset with the same old west-inspired content made in Bollywood and they are craving for original content which the Hindi writers sitting in the AC rooms are failing to understand. Take for example, Shah Rukh Khan's 'Pathaan'. Although filing cases and demanding ban on the film are meaningless, the makers came up with a vulgar song in the form of 'Besharam Rang'. Such songs exposing skin worked before, but today, the taste of the audience have changed. If not for the controversy, the song would not have possibly got half of the views it got on YouTube.

The next issue is nepotism. Whether the powerful minority in Bollywood likes to accept it or not there is angry among fans over filmmakers grooming stars' kids at the cost of talented ones. While talented men continued to struggle to get right projects, kids of stars get work easily. Even so, some of them have miserably failed to impress the viewers which is one of the reasons why Hindi cinephiles have stayed away from watching films in theatres.

The last thing that the film industry wanted was Sushant Singh Rajput's alleged suicide, which made people realise the outsider's struggle in Bollywood controlled by powerful few. In fact, this turned out to be a last nail in the coffin as people, until then were just angry, decided to boycott the products of nepotism. The drug culture has also dented the image of Bollywood.

Well, before Suniel Shetty wants UP Yogi and PM Modi to help Bollywood to get rid of boycott trend, is not he should advise people from his own industry and wake them up to address the aforementioned real issues plaguing Bollywood?