Boycotting films for political mileage is not a healthy practice and must be discouraged
Lal Singh Chaddha’ is having the last laugh as the film has been well received in the international market and grossed over USD 7.5 million so far. It has become the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022 in international markets so far and is likely to make good its losses back home where it was boycotted on social media like never before. The boycotters have some serious thinking to do. Does boycotting a work of art like cinema work? Is it right to boycott a work of art on issues that have nothing to do with the film per se? Indeed they would have their logic and uncanny arguments to support their actions to run the Twitter campaign to boycott the film. It worked back home as the film costing around Rs 200 crores opened with a collection of a few lakhs and must have left the makers and distributors heartbroken. It takes a lot of time, energy, money, and the involvement of thousands of cast and crew members to make the film. And if someone is trying to stop the release of the film through 'Gandhian' or a violent means (as in the case of Padmavat) he is harming the interest of thousands of the people involved in the project.
Even bizarre is the reason for the boycott. It is a political campaign directed against an apolitical person. The rightwing Twitratis made it a mission to tank the film with their #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha trend because the lead actor/producer was Aamir Khan whose earlier film PK had offended their religious sentiment and the star had spoken about leaving the country in wake of lynching incidents. They are not targeting the film for its content but the filmmaker for his comments and earlier work. To oversee if the film is fit enough for release is the sole prerogative of the Film Censor Board of India and once a film is duly passed by it nobody has any business to boycott it. If you don't like it don't see it but you cannot force others do the same. Bollywood today is split down the middle. But both sides are getting equally hurt by the new culture of boycotting films. Akshay Kumar’s film Raksha Bandhan suffered the same fate. It was trolled because of its writer for allegedly being ‘Hinduphobic’. PK for that matter had Vidhu Vinod Chopra as producer. Cinema is a collective work of art in which several people give their input. You just cannot single out a person to troll, you troll all of them. The problem with a boycott is that it cuts both ways and spells doom for the industry as a whole, right left, or center.