Here’s what Javed Akhtar has to say about the ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend

Bollywood is going through a phase of setbacks of late, one of them being the ongoing online trend of boycotting the industry’s films. Javed Akhtar recently shared his thoughts about the ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend.

In conversation with ETimes, Akhtar referred to the trend as a ‘passing phase’. According to the writer, it was evident that the calls for boycotts of films did not in fact work, despite some people thinking that it did. He said that he believed announcements of cancel culture and boycotts would not have any effect on films. “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”, he said.

Akhtar joins the long list of celebrities, like Arjun Kapoor, Swara Bhasker, Suniel Shetty, Pankaj Tripathi, Vivek Agnihotri and Anurag Kashyap, who have given their two cents about the issue.

Films such as Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and Taapsee Pannu’s Dobaaraa have all been in the midst of calls for boycotts. The films had witnessed lacklustre performances at the box office as well.

Puri Jagannadh’s recent pan Indian film Liger, starring Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday, too had earned the ire of netizens at one point and calls to boycott the films had come up even before its release. As per recent reports, the film is struggling at the box office as well.

Even highly anticipated upcoming Bollywood releases like Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, and Pushkar-Gayatri’s Vikram Vedha had found themselves trending on Twitter, as users called for their boycott as well. Brahmastra, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna and Mouni Roy, will hit big screens on September 9. Vikram Vedha stars Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan in lead roles and will be released on September 30.