Bollywood’s wrong answers to boycott calls: Why our ‘stars’ still operate in a vacuum

Some recent reactions from actors and trade commentators indicate that Bollywood refuses to understand that one shouldn’t be too eager to cut the branch it’s perched upon. The reaction of actor Arjun Kapoor that Bollywood made a mistake by remaining silent about the calls for a boycott of new releases such as Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan reeks of utter ignorance and, dare one say, naiveté. Many might find such reactions from the industry a result of hubris, and be that as it may, it’s a more prominent display of cognitive challenge. Mainstream Hindi cinema loves to call itself an industry. Every now and then, when it feels cornered, it tries to create a united front. It’s also what Arjun Kapoor seemed to be suggesting that the industry needs to come together and do something about it. It’s funny that such statements are entertained by various quarters — what will the industry do? A few days before the release of Laal Singh Chaddha, when the ‘boycott’ trend was gathering momentum, Kareena Kapoor Khan, the film’s leading lady, said that she doesn’t take such calls seriously as ‘ everyone has a voice today’. Some trade analysts and industry insiders have gone on to suggest that boycotting films directly impacts the livelihoods of all those who worked on the film. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. Technicians who work on films get paid their fees or salaries and rarely get a share in what the filmmakers at the box office. Often, producers are notorious for not clearing dues even after a film releases and offer to make good the next time. What Arjun, Kareena Kapoor, and analysts don’t seem to get is that the audience is not interested in their logic or explanations. It never was, but earlier, it didn’t have the tools to let its disdain be known so openly. Bollywood cannot be called an industry in the true sense of the word because it refuses to operate by the simple dictum guiding any industry — you don’t disregard what your customer seems to be telling you. If, on the one hand, Kareena Kapoor said that no one was forcing people to see a film, on the other hand, she later requested people not to boycott Laal Singh Chaddha. The viewer backlash has been in the making for a while. Some years ago, when Aamir Khan told an audience that his wife felt that the nation had become intolerant, people responded by boycotting products that the superstar endorsed. Such was the impact that Snapdeal dropped him as the brand ambassador. Commentators said that the so-called troll brigade forced Snapdeal to take such a drastic step, but there is another way of looking at it — Snapdeal believed that losing its customers would harm the business. More often than not, mainstream Bollywood stars operate in a vacuum, and it’s not surprising that they refuse to read the writing on the wall. For a few years now, the tools available to make content (read films) are the same with which someone in the neighbourhood makes a video that goes viral. The platforms for screening, too, have changed. Today, a tent-pole Bollywood production has to jostle for eyeballs with YouTubers or a stand-up comedian who became famous thanks to Instagram Reels. One can gauge Bollywood’s disconnect with reality when young stars such as Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan don’t know the name of India’s President and continue to proudly flaunt their ignorance. The OTT platforms that were previously shelling out big bucks to reel in the Bollywood stars also seem to read the tea leaves. That popular Hindi cinema needs to take stock and probably reinvent itself for the sake of its viewers is a foregone conclusion. The bigger question is whether it would understand that to be treated like an industry, it needs to understand that without customers, it might just as well be spitting in the wind. The writer is a film historian. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.