'Kantara' actor Kishore equates 'Boycott Bollywood' with fanatical hooliganism

The hashtag reared its ugly head two years later ahead of the August 11 release of superstar Aamir Khan's movie "Laal Singh Chaddha" and Akshay Kumar's "Raksha Bandhan".

Bengaluru, Jan 09: Kantara actor and activist Kishore Kumar G, who was in the news lately for calling Yash's Kannada blockbuster film KGF 2, a mindless movie, has now weighed in on the 'boycott bollywood' trend equating it to hooliganism.

His statement comes in the light of the boycott calls against Shah Rukh Khan's action-thriller Pathaan and the vandalism that took place a few days ago in a mall in Ahmedabad.

Sharing a snippet of a news article on his Instagram handle that had Suniel Shetty's news on it, Kishore posted "The time has come for the film fraternity of the entire country to stand up and support Bollywood by condemning the trend of boycotting Bollywood films, fanatical hooliganism against them and the politics of hatred against its actors."

"It's a failure of the governments that they can't ensure the safety of a business or an industry in the world's biggest democracy," he posted.

"Even so, an atmosphere of fear has been created where people from the film industry are not talking, which is a shame on the government officials who are responsible for maintaining law and order," Kishore opined.

"It is a clear violation of law which is poisoning the society and needs to be stopped and punished.
Before the fire spreads to the local film industries too," Kishore concluded.

For the unversed, Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty had urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to help erase hatred against the Hindi film industry and get rid of the 'Boycott Bollywood' trend on social media.

"I want to talk about this hashtag that's going on - 'Boycott Bollywood'. It can stop if you say something about it. We are doing good work," the 61-year-old actor said.

"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.

The BoycottBollywood hashtag first started trending following actor Sushant Singh Rajput's demise in June 2020 which ignited discussions on the nepotistic nature of the industry and the gate-keeping attitude of top banners.

The hashtag reared its ugly head two years later ahead of the August 11 release of superstar Aamir Khan's movie "Laal Singh Chaddha" and Akshay Kumar's "Raksha Bandhan".

The other targets have been Anurag Kashyap's directorial "Dobaaraa", Vijay Deverakonda-starrer "Liger", and Ayan Mukerji's big-budget fantasy adventure "Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva". Superstar Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film "Pathaan" is the latest in the line of fire.