Bollywood 2022: How trending hashtags hurt Hindi films at the box office

A couple of years ago, nobody could have imagined that a call for a film’s boycott on social media could impact its’ box-office performance badly. Assailed by a series of setbacks in 2022, however, Bollywood should have realised that an unknown person with a cell phone in hand can start an online campaign asking for a film’s boycott before its release. A boycott call targeting a film seems harmless at the outset, but it occasionally snowballs into a loud noise generated by thousands of like-thinking others in no time. 2022 has shown that many films that were hit by such calls have tanked, a lesson Bollywood must not ignore as it looks forward to a new beginning in 2023. Will Pathaan work? Shah Rukh Khan hasn’t had a significant solo hero success in recent years. . However, the megastar’s upcoming film, Siddharth Anand’s action drama Pathaan, is being viewed as a potential blockbuster capable of spreading optimism in a beleaguered industry. The film courted controversy moments after the music video of the song, Besharam Rang, featuring SRK and Deepika Padukone wearing a saffron swimsuit for a few seconds was released. Few criticised the song’s musical mediocrity. What was lambasted was the use of the phrase ‘besharam rang’ and the choice of saffron, a colour that has religious significance for the Hindus. Member of Parliament Sadhvi Pragya, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, Vishwa Hindu Parishad national spokesperson Vinod Bansal and BJP MLA Ram Kadam were among those who raised their voices, and so did countless others on social media. Trending hashtags, among them #BoycottPathaan and #BoycottPathan, surfaced. #BoycottBollywood and #BoycottBollywoodCompletely, both familiar hashtags, reappeared. The call for Pathaan’s boycott has been criticised, too, with netizens sharing music video clips and photographs from the past in which actors are wearing saffron outfits – and not because they are lip-synching to religious songs. Pathaan did not need to get embroiled in a controversy before its release. Can it impact its fate at the box office? Although it is a much-awaited SRK solo hero film after four years, some loss of theatrical viewership is a possibility for sure. That will be really disappointing if the film has what it takes to entertain most potential film-goers – apart from those few seconds. Brahmastra could have been a bigger success Released in an atmosphere of gloom pervading Bollywood, Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy action-adventure directorial Brahmastra: Part I – Shiva made at an estimated cost of Rs 375 crore grossed a reported Rs 431 crore globally. A Hindi film doing that sort of business was pleasantly mind-boggling when the industry’s struggle to attract viewers was an obvious fact, causing anxiety and disappointment. While Brahmastra’s success is undeniable, the film would have arguably performed even better if the hashtag #BoycottBrahmastra had not started trending before its release. The age-old criticism of star kids, a fact of their lives neither Ranbir nor Alia can alter, came to the fore. An old video in which Ranbir speaks about his liking for beef annoyed many Hindus, who consider the cow sacred and for whom consuming beef is an act of desecration. That the video surfaced after a long time was a reminder that public memory was not as short as it seemed. Brahmastra’s box-office numbers were not as fantastic as they should have been for a film that cost so much – and took several years to make. The final result was its emergence as the biggest Hindi film of 2022, but it was surpassed by four South Indian films led by Prashanth Neel’s Kannada action drama KGF: 2, which grossed an estimated Rs 1200 crore. Working in sensitive times  When asked to share her views on the cancel culture on social media during an interview with the Indian Express, Alia Bhatt said, “We need to cancel ‘cancel culture’. We need to boycott the boycotts.” The question, however, is: how can any attempt to ‘boycott the boycotts’ stop their recurrence from time to time? In an age of instant judgments and increasing scrutiny, Bollywood must do what it takes to lessen the frequency of calls for boycott on social media and aspire to produce non-controversial content that attracts more viewers to the theatres consistently. Akshay Kumar’s forgettable 2022 had commercial failures like Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s historical drama Samrat Prithviraj and Aanand L. Rai’s family drama Raksha Bandhan at a time the actor has had to face criticism on social media. Karan Malhotra’s action film Shamshera starring Ranbir Kapoor was at the receiving end of criticism, partly because of the depiction of the villain played by Sanjay Dutt as a tilak-wearing Hindu. Commenting on trending hashtags asking for boycott of films, Anurag Kashyap quipped during a media interaction before his mystery film Dobaaraa was released, “I am feeling left out. Even I want ki meri film boycott karo….” The film’s lead actress Pannu added, “Yes, please boycott Dobaaraa trend karva do…we also want to trend on Twitter.” The emergence of the #BoycottDobaaraa hashtag was followed by the film’s noiseless disappearance from the theatres soon after it was released. That one big failure  2022’s most talked about failure was Advait Chandan’s comedy-drama Laal Singh Chaddha starring Aamir Khan. A remake of the 1994 Robert Zemeckis film Forrest Gump, many social media users participated in a call for LSC’s boycott, one of the reasons being a statement by Khan in 2015 on intolerance in India. Controversies surrounding Khan’s 2014 satirical comedy-drama PK helmed by Rajkumar Hirani, which had, among other things, made fun of the Hindu god Shiva, also resurfaced. During a media interaction, Khan said, “That boycott Bollywood, boycott Aamir Khan, boycott Laal Singh Chaddha, I feel sad. I feel sad because a lot of people… believe I am someone who doesn’t like India. In their hearts, they believe that, but that’s quite untrue,” he said. The megastar added, “I really love the country. That’s how I am. It is rather unfortunate that some people feel that way. I want to assure everyone that it’s not the case so please don’t boycott my films. Please watch my films.” Did Khan’s statement have a positive impact on the film’s fate at the Indian box office? It did not, although the film was a good performer in the overseas market. More than just content 2022 should have taught Bollywood that theatrical releases with mediocre or worse content are far less likely to do good business. What can hurt a film significantly, if not equally, is a call for its boycott on social media. Those involved in filmmaking cannot erase their statements from the past, which will re-emerge intermittently as long as they work in films. They must accept and adjust to the need of the hour as they aspire to do what they must: tell a good story while knowing that stardom won’t be accepted uncritically any longer. The author, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed are personal. 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