Shatrughan Sinha feels people can’t stop trolls on social media: ‘Na rok sakte hai, na tok sakte hai’

Shatrughan Sinha recently reminisced about his career and film roles in a panel in front of an audience. The veteran actor made his acting debut in the late 1960s and became a star in the 1970s alongside actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna. In the 2000s, he made the switch to politics and since then, has acted quite infrequently. He is still active on social media where he discusses current affairs and topics with Twitter users. (Also read: Luv Sinha says Bollywood continues to give opportunities to actors who ‘can’t speak Hindi’ and ‘can’t act’)

The veteran actor started off the panel reciting whole scenes from his early catalogue of films which he remembered quite well. He initially started out as a villain in Pyar Hi Pyar, Banphool, Raampur Ka Lakshman, Bhai Ho Toh Aisa, Heera, and Blackmail. His big breakthrough as a lead actor came with Subhash Ghai’s Kalicharan in 1976.

Shatrughan was also asked about the calls to boycott recent big films in Bollywood and he gave his reaction to the whole affair. He felt that one can’t really stop people from speaking negatively about a person or their work. He said to Aaj Tak, “Social media has become really powerful today. Unfortunately, when it comes to show business affairs, baaki media rang nahi laa rahi hai (the rest of the media isn’t really bringing it up), especially after corona. [In] this empty space which has come up since corona, social media has emerged quite strongly. And why not? In social media, everyone has come to know the strength of their voice.”

The veteran actor added, “Kuch log ulta-sulta likhte hai, aur unko na jan sakte hai, na rok sakte hai, na tok sakte hai (Some people will write wrong things, and we don’t know them, we can’t stop them, or do anything against them). On social media, the troll army woh betahyee gayee isliye ke inke khilaf kuch prachar karo (the troll army has been kept specially to write against things). Uska kaiye baar, hum ya humare log, ya humari filmein shikar ho jaate hai (So often, the film industry and our films become prey to them).” Shatrughan also shared that he didn’t think that social media shouldn’t be done away with.

Last year, there were protests against several big production Hindi films such as Laal Singh Chaddha and Pathaan, online. While the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan managed to become a hit, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha was not as successful as the boycott calls.