It is no surprise that the wider audience has had some major dissatisfaction with the actors and actresses of the Bollywood industry. While once there used to be a major crowd excited to watch their favorite actors in their upcoming movies, now these new releases are only met with a grunt. Indian audiences are currently voicing their unhappiness with nepotism and the content of the movies that are being released in theatres, in an extremely loud voice. Recent releases such as Lal Singh Chadha and Raksha Bandhan have had to suffer from this criticism. 

It is becoming more challenging for movie stars and other celebrities to promote their movies due to the overall cancellation culture’s growth. Recently, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s film Laal Singh Chaddha, as well as Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar’s film Raksha Bandhan, encountered a Boycott movement on social media. Both films competed for audience attention and had dismal box office performances. 

Even Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera was subjected to a boycott. Furthermore, Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, Hrithik Roshan’s Vikram Vedha, and other films have been asked for a boycotted. With each day that goes by, the boycott tendency only intensifies. It’s a frightening situation for moviemakers and even celebrities. These have been the reactions from some of the stars facing the threat of this situation. 

1. Vijay Verma

In an interview with India Today, Darlings actor, Vijay Varma discussed how the #BoycottBollywood movement had reached a dangerous level.

“It can scare you. It has just gone a bit overboard now. I feel something that you said 10 years ago could have been objectionable, and made a few people raise their eyebrows. It could be a prevalent exercise at that time, but in today’s times, it is no longer frowned upon. I feel you cannot be canceled for something like that.” 

2. Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar stated that everyone just wants to express their ideas, but this would soon have an impact on India’s economy.

“People are smart enough to understand what is wrong and what is right. I would just request them, don’t do such mischief, it’s not good and it hurts every industry. Abhi kya ho gaya hai, sabko apna apna kuch bolna hai. Ek film banti hai bohot saare paiso aur mehnat se and koi bhi industry ho (Everybody has an opinion now. When a film is made, there goes a lot of money and hard work into it), it affects the economy of India and we actually indirectly are hurting ourselves only and I hope people realize this soon.” 

3. Aamir Khan

Laal Singh Chaddha, played by Aamir Khan, received a lot of backlash online. Aamir had previously responded to the same situation by claiming that many of those asking for a boycott think he is anti-national or doesn’t like India. He said that everything was false. When asked about the boycott trend again, Aamir responded that he couldn’t help in the improvement of the issue, but he would still like Laal Singh Chaddha to reach a bigger audience.

3. Alia Bhat

The same reaction was also garnered by Alia Bhatt’s latest Netflix release, “Darlings”.  The movie was catching some flack over the internet and it also went through the phase of being boycotted online. The actress gave a rather cool response and talked about her resilience and her ability to learn from her mistakes. 

“We need to cancel ‘cancel culture‘. We need to boycott the boycotts.”

4. Kareena Kapoor Khan

In relation to the boycott, Kareena Kapoor Khan received a lot of criticism. When Laal Singh Chaddha was boycotted, the actor was asked what she thought of the situation. She said she would not want the general public to shun such a lovely movie. Kareena stated that the boycott trend is solely due to a small segment of the audience. A lot of people have worked on the movie for nearly three years, she continued. Boycotting Laal Singh Chaddha, according to Bebo, would be comparable to boycotting quality movies. Kareena’s remark that no one should be pressuring people to watch the movie, became popular earlier when the nepotism controversy had swept the world by storm. People re-released the video and viciously teased her for it.

“It just saddens of course because we’re working for the love of cinema and this is good cinema. So we want people to see this. We want them to come and enjoy this movie that we’ve all and a crew of 250 people who’ve got jobs and have been working towards the same goal. I just want everybody to come and appreciate the good cinema and enjoy it. Cinemas are meant to spread love and positivity. It’s not meant to kind of be canceled or spoken about in that sense and it upsets me.” 

5. Arjun Kapoor

Arjun now has something to say regarding the cancel culture and boycott trend that has been circulating in the Bollywood industry. The actor was recently sighted in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, in which he discussed the boycott trend and trolling. 

“I think we made a mistake by being silent about it and that was our decency but people have started taking advantage of that. I think we made a mistake by thinking that ‘our work will speak for ourselves. You know you don’t always need to get your hand dirty but I guess we tolerated it a lot and now people have made this a habit. We need to come together and do something about it because what people write about us or the hashtags that trend, are far away from reality. When we do films that do well at the box office, then at that time people like us not because of our surnames but because of the film.” 

The ‘2 States’ actor further commented, “On Friday mornings, the spark in people, the euphoria for a new film, the excitement in people, and the shine of the industry is coming down. Lagatar keechad uchaalte jayenge toh nayi gaadi bhi thodi si shine kho degi na? Humne toh kaafi keechad jhel liya hai pichle kuch saalon mein kyunki we have turned a blind eye on it (People have been throwing mud at us for years, and even a new car’s exterior will become filthy and lose its luster. This problem has existed for years). We think that people’s perception will change after the film‘s release.” 

6. Suniel Shetty

Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar received encouragement from Suniel Shetty, who noted their tireless efforts to amuse the public. He claimed that if Aamir was only in it for the sole purpose of earning money, he would have been making a lot of movies for such financial gain rather than making a single movie a year. 

Suniel claimed that Aamir just does one movie a year to amuse them and that he is free to make other movies for financial gain. Since many people’s livelihoods depend on the movies, he thought that greater judgment would eventually win out among the populace.

Conclusion

There have been a number of issues ranging from misogyny to nepotism over the past few years, which have created a storm for these stars. The controversies have gotten so heated that people are simply resorting to boycotting Bollywood movies altogether. Moreover, they are taking such steps prior to the release of these movies.