Javed Akhtar calls Boycott Bollywood trends ‘a passing phase’

Javed Akhtar talked about the ongoing boycott trends effecting Bollywood, and called it a 'passing phase'.

New Delhi | September 1, 2022 07:46 PM IST

2 min read

Javed Akhtar speaks about the cancel culture. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar has opened up about the ongoing cancel culture and boycott trends currently plaguing Bollywood. The veteran lyricist walked the red carpet of Filmfare Awards 2022 with his wife Shabana Azmi and said that these trends were just a ‘passing phase’.

Akhtar was quoted saying, “It is a passing phase. It is very evident that it doesn’t work. If the film is good and is appreciated by the audience, it will work. If it is not good and not appreciated by the audience, it won’t work. I don’t think this kind of announcement of cancel culture and boycott works at all.”

The Hindi film industry in particular is facing a backlash from the public as they are boycotting both films and the celebrities. Recently, Aamir Khan’s film Laal Singh Chaddha was partially impacted by these social media trends. Similarly, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and Vijay Deverakonda’s Liger, which were expected to perform well at the box office, failed, again in part due to these social media trends.

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Many Bollywood actors have talked about the current situation. Recently, actor Swara Bhasker in an interview with Zoom said, “I don’t know how much boycott trends actually affect the business. This boycott business is hyped up, it’s a small group of people who are driven by a certain agenda. They are hatemongers, they hate Bollywood, they want to destroy Bollywood, and are spreading malicious nonsense lies about Bollywood…And I think they are earning from it…We’ve enough evidence to prove that most of these are paid trends. There are also people who used Sushant’s tragedy for their own personal agendas and benefit.”

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