You can’t deny the fact that Bollywood movies are known as movies with cheesy, corny, and unrealistic plot lines where actors intermittently break into singing and dancing in any situation. Have you ever given thought to why movies made in Bollywood are double the length of Hollywood films? Well, if you ask me I think it’s because there’s hardly any other source of mass entertainment available that manages to enthrall audiences in the way Bollywood invariably does, and therefore, they don’t mind taking out three hours just to sit and watch a Bollywood cliche movie.

But for a few years, a specter is haunting the Bollywood industry, the specter of boycottism.  A Twitter trend has been gaining pace #BoycottBollywood, which seeks a complete boycott or at least audience withdrawal from the Bollywood film industry. It takes many forms and shapes, often specifically geared towards an actor, actress, upcoming film, or in one of its latest avatars, #BoycottBollywoodCompletely.

This trend has been surfacing the Internet for ages and it took the limelight from Padmavat before it was named Padmavati where Karni Sena was against this movie and how they showcased Rani Padmini. It then came to heat when Deepika Padukone supported students from JNU who were against this hypocrisy and people decided to boycott her movie Chhapak based on a true story of a victim of an acid attack. Since then this trend is ongoing but they were not boycotting every movie. Movies like Kashmir Files, URI,  83, RRR, etc were such a super hit at the box office because of the way they presented the story.

Here are some of the reasons why people are losing interest in the Hindi film industry and boycotting it:

Why Indians Are Boycotting Bollywood Movies

1) Losing originality 

The popular perception behind Bollywood’s boycott is that the industry is losing its connection with the current generation of film watchers, and producing bad illogical movies, one after another. This can be one of the reasons why audiences are spending less or completely boycotting Hindi cinema. Be it over the historical events, past comments made by actors, domestic violence, depiction of religious figures, or for allegedly “copying” from other movies, the boycott calls against the Hindi film industry are getting harsher by the day.

2) Attitude of celebrities

Movie stars have been taking their audience for granted, making anti-national statements, and expecting their movies to be a box office hit. Recently Kareena Kapoor Khan said in an interview “Who has forced you to watch our movies if you don’t want mat Jao dekhne” And people took it quite seriously. The same happened with Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap. Taapsee Pannu wanted people to boycott her movies too and the audience said Tathastu

Kareena Kapoor Viral Interview

 

 

3) High entertainment tax

One of the main reasons can be the high prices of tickets in movie theatres and over that people have to pay taxes too. UP has imposed a whopping 60% tax on ticket prices whereas, in Mumbai, the center for Bollywood, the entertainment tax rate is 45%. The tax on regional language films is comparatively less. Like there is a 0% tax for Tamil films in Tamil Nadu and a 0% tax on Kannada films in Karnataka. In Andhra Pradesh, the tax on Telugu films is just 15%.

4) Rise of OTT

We just came out of a pandemic and one of the things that kept people sane was OTT platforms. It has become a great alternative to those expensive tickets. You can watch your favorite movies at a cheaper price and more comfortably. Unless there is an upcoming film that seems to be promising and you can’t wait for a month to watch it, people prefer watching series and movies in the comfort of their homes.

Do let us know in the comment section, what you feel about the #BoycottBollywood trend on Twitter.