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#BOYCOTT IS SO yesterday… go ahead!
I recently visited a popular hill station near Mumbai called Panchgani. In the old days it was famous for its strawberries. Today, locals proudly say, “Aamir Khan lives here.” The people of Panchgani are hardly the stars. It is, after all, a British hill station founded by Lord Chesson in 1860 as a summer resort for the forests hot in the Deccan heat. Amir must have been charmed enough to buy a two-acre plot with a colonial villa at Sydney Point, with a spectacular view of a verdant valley. It was here that he married Kiran Rao in 2005 (they divorced in 2021). The villa is an important landmark in Panchgani these days as tourists stop their buses to click pictures.
I thought about Aamir as I drove to the famous Table Land. What is all this nonsense about asking the public to boycott his latest film Laal Singh Chaddha? The movie flopped on its own without any help from troll armies. But this is about targeting an individual and pressuring moviegoers to boycott his film because his views are not compatible with theirs.
Aamir is not your typical Bollywood star. He is known as “Mr. Perfectionist” in the film industry. Over the years, he has invested in what he loves most – movies – and has given fans much to admire as a director/actor who follows his own vision. Some films broke records and did outstanding business, but his latest one clearly failed to capture the imagination of the audience. That’s the nature of filmmaking. There is no formula! Amir has always done it his way. It’s an artistic and business risk that promises a good return at the box office. Amir’s personal and political views are his own.
What the repeal culture is trying to do today is ugly and unprecedented. Calling citizens to boycott films, indulging in intimidation, stoning theaters, burning posters and effigies – come on! Be it Aamir Khan or Hrithik Roshan, this kind of targeting is unfair and a blatant act of hostility. The climate is such that any perceived “lapse” can be attacked with a demand for a boycott. Hrithik is in a soup for a food delivery ad in which he mentions ‘Mahakal’, a restaurant and not the temple of the same name. The response was swift and aggressive. The actor expressed his “sincere apologies” and it should all be over. But will it? The ‘Mahakal’ restaurant in Ujjain does a lot of business for Zomato, which uses Hrithik in the advertisement. Why hasn’t the restaurant been asked to change its name? If Roshan is accused of hurting Hindu sentiments, it begs the question – how did the restaurant thrive?
Every time an actor is forced to issue an apology for an inadvertent “mistake”, an unpleasant message is sent to other celebrities to monitor their every public utterance in case some interest/lobby starts a hate campaign and crushes the individual. Movie stars make the softest targets in our country. Only the greatest are systematically brought down in this bully fashion. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan is already cursed before its release.
The strange thing about all the recent boycott campaigns is the apparent contradiction. Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan is tanking alongside Laal Singh Chaddha. They were going to quit whether a boycott was called for or not. Word of mouth had done the job far more lethally and quickly. Digging up old interviews and remarks without providing any context is a Machiavellian tactic we should all beware of.
Aamir’s latest had an embarrassingly low opening (Rs 11.7 crore on Day 1). His Thugs of Hindostan (2018) opened with Rs 52 crore before sinking. This is a reflection of the idealistic director who is out of sync with the changing tastes of the audience. There are no alibi’s for failure in the film world – not even boycotts.
A trip to Panchgani for some heavy introspection seems overdue.
@DeShobhaa @shobhaade
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