Stop 'Boycott Bollywood': Akshay Kumar hails PM Modi's call for restraint; SRK seeks Assam CM's support for 'Pathaan' screening

The 'Boycott Bollywood' trend is back to haunt the Indian film industry.

After the shocking demise of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the hashtag 'Boycott Bollywood' started trending. However, in 2022, superstar Aamir Khan's 'Laal Singh Chaddha', an official Hindi remake of the 1994 Tom Hanks-starrer 'Forrest Gump', was one of the first casualties of the 'Boycott Bollywood' trend. Later, 'Raksha Bandhan', 'Liger' and many others followed suit.

Ranbir Kapoor's 'Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva' was also under the boycott heat, but managed to do well at the box-office, emerging as one of the highest-grossing films of 2022.


This time, the trend has returned with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone's 'Pathaan'. Days after the official launch of the song 'Besharam Rang' on December 12, trouble started brewing.

The far right-wing groups found Padukone's saffron and green bikini objectionable in the song. Many leaders have been demanding a ban on the film. A slew of activists in Indore even staged a protest and set effigies of the stars of the film on fire.



Recently, to protest the screening of the film in Guwahati, Bajrang Dal activists tore the film's posters and burnt them in front of a theatre at Narengi on Friday.

After these events, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that SRK called him up at 2 am on Sunday to express concern over a protest against his upcoming film.

Sarma assured the actor that his government will enquire about the demonstration. "I assured him that it's the duty of the state govt to maintain law & order. We'll enquire and ensure no such untoward incidents,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Siddharth Anand-directorial will be released on January 25. The movie marks SRK's return to the big screen after the 2018 dud 'Zero'.

Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor Khan, who suffered the wrath of the 'Boycott Bollywood' trend during the release of 'Laal Singh Chaddha', recently addressed the issue and expressed her concern.

During a discussion at the Indian Chamber of Commerce-Young Leaders Forum event in Kolkata, the 42-year-old said she doesn't agree with the 'Boycott Bollywood' trend. "I don't agree with it at all. If that happens, how will we entertain, how will you have joy and happiness in your life, which, I think everybody needs? And which cinema and films are promising, which we have always done, which films have always done. Agar films nahi hogi toh entertainment kaisa hoga (There will not be any entertainment without movies)," she was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

Indian film industry breathed a sigh of relief when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week, asked his party workers to refrain from making 'unnecessary remarks on irrelevant issues such as movies'. In his address to the BJP national executive meeting, PM Modi said that making unnecessary remarks on irrelevant issues put the party's development agenda on the back burner.

Bollywood's Khiladi Akshay Kumar was thrilled to hear PM Modi take a stand.

During the trailer launch of his upcoming movie 'Selfiee', he said the PM was 'India's biggest influencer' and it will be great for the film industry if his words can bring about some change.


"Positivity is always welcome. And if our Prime Minister is saying something like this... He is India's biggest influencer. If he is saying something and if things change it'll be great for the industry. And why not, things should change, because we go through so much. We make films, go to the censor board, get them passed and then someone says something and phir gadbad ho jati hai (it becomes a mess). But now that he has said it, I think it'll be better for us."

Film bodies - Indian Film & Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) and Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) - had earlier hailed PM Modi's comment and called it a 'big boost of confidence' for the Hindi film industry.