Boycott Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan To Impact Its Box Office? No Amount Of Hatred Can Ban Good Cinema ( Photo Credit – Still from Laal Singh Chaddha; Raksha Bandhan )
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It’s Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha & Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan month but the genuine moviegoer in us surely got disappointed on seeing how a boycott trend was active against both the films. In clear and precise words “Boycotts aim to stop the spread of harmful art and prevent the artist from profiting.” The keyword being here is ‘harmful art’ & even that’s subjective to everyone. The art that might be ‘harmful’ to you, won’t bother many around you & vice versa.
So, is it okay to ‘boycott’ films that might hurt your sentimental values? Yes, but don’t you think you’ll have to watch it to understand the context and see if it’s really hurting you or is it just a farce created by some agenda-driven fringe elements around you?
Let’s first break down why both the films are on the radar of netizens’ ‘boycott’ list. A thing that’s common between both the films is the actors in it are facing ghosts from the past. Laal Singh Chaddha is trending to get cancelled for Aamir Khan‘s comments about moving out from India for not feeling safe & the controversial portrayal of Lord Shiva in PK.
We’d start this conversation by asking the people who are asking for the boycott of the film, where were you guys during Thugs Of Hindostan? Why that film didn’t get a similar treatment to what Laal Singh Chaddha is getting? Don’t worry, we won’t narrow this debate down to “why now, if not before?” It’s just a question people who are being emotionally manipulated to fall into the trend need to ask from those fuelling it i.e. #BoycottGang.
We’re sure many will bring up the angle of “one can’t separate the art from the artist!” So, quoting Macey Porter, a sophomore sociology major, who once said “I think it’s possible to separate the art from the artist only when the art doesn’t convey the artist’s problematic beliefs.” Another interesting quote read, “If a song itself isn’t promoting negative values, then one might enjoy it independently from its singer.”
Another question the #BoycottGang need to ask each other is, “When Aamir Khan said ‘When I chat with Kiran at home, she says ‘Should we move out of India?’ did he in any way implement the same in any of his art? (Films, in this case)” Did his films make you feel like you should leave your country & reside somewhere else in the world? Before all this, did you read/know what his next line was after the ‘should we move out?’ He continued the quote by saying “That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make.”
Aamir Khan called the statement of his wife ‘disastrous & big’, but who will tell you this? Surely not the perfectly edited over-dramatised videos getting shared right before the releases of these stars. If boycotting PK on Twitter/social media was as serious, how did it went on to be Aamir Khan’s highest-grossing film earning 340 crores at the box office? Can’t it be because people outside social media didn’t care about the controversy and enjoyed the film overall?
With Raksha Bandhan, the boycott isn’t even completely because of something that Akshay Kumar said, it’s because of what the film’s writer Kanika Dhillon has expressed in the past. Again, where was all this when Kedarnath happened? That film was boycotted for different reasons of promoting ‘love jihad’ but nowhere did Kanika Dhillon’s past comments hurt the film.
Akshay Kumar’s old contrasting actions of ‘wasting’ milk on Hindu deities are again going viral after they did once during Prithviraj. Recalling what happened during his film OMG! Oh My God back in 2012, many screenings were halted for ‘anti-religious depiction of various characters’ but what was the result? Did the boycott really work and was the film a flop? Nope, the film was a super-hit at the box office churning humongous profits.
So, the question to ask here is, does boycotting films really work though? Nope if it’s really a good film. So, even if Laal Singh Chaddha or Raksha Bandhan doesn’t work at the box office, it won’t be due to some trollers deciding to do a mass boycott on social media against them but it’ll because those won’t be good films. Period.
Of course, we’re confident with both the films’ stories given the amount of talent attached to them and want to end this by saying – You just cannot boycott good cinema.
