Amidst calls to boycott Laal Singh Chaddha, Pankaj Tripathi shares thoughts on cancel culture

Bollywood seems to be going through a rough patch of late. Not only have many of its big ticket releases of late failed to make a mark on the box office, some films even seemed to have irked audiences even before their release, leading to calls for their boycott. Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Alia Bhatt’s Darlings, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and most recently Taapsee Pannu’s Dobaaraa have found themselves on the receiving end of cancel culture and the boycott ‘trend’. Pankaj Tripathi recently shared his thoughts on the present nature of cancel culture in Bollywood.

In conversation with India Today, Tripathi said that people were entitled to voice their opinions, as we lived in a democracy. But despite that, the fact remained that films were an important medium that generated revenue for the government. This revenue in turn was needed by the government so that it could be used for the development of society. “Lekin, sehemati ho ya nahi, (however, if they agree or not), this is each one's individual right", he concluded.

Aamir, Akshay, and Alia have all spoken up about the calls to boycott their films. Before Laal Singh Chaddha’s release, Aamir had apologised for hurting anyone’s feelings and kept his fingers crossed that the film would do well.

Akshay’s film Raksha Bandhan, which also released on August 11 with Laal Singh Chaddha, had also been subject to calls for a boycott. Saying that ultimately it was the audience’s choice whether or not they should watch the film, he added that the film industry also played a crucial role in contributing to the country’s economy.

When calls to boycott Netflix’s Darlings started to come up, Alia had remarked that cancelling cancel culture was the need of the hour.

Ironically, calls to boycott Taapsee’s upcoming film Dobaaraa started to come up after she and director Anurag Kashyap joked that they would like their film to be a part of the boycott trend as well.