Suniel Shetty on boycott Bollywood trend: ‘People might not be happy with type of subjects films are having these days’

Suniel Shetty has opened up about the ongoing social media trend of boycotting celebrities and films. The actor said such trends have had an impact on some of the recently-released movies, which were expected to perform well at the box office. He was attending a recent event, when Suniel was asked about films facing boycott calls on Twitter, and other social media platforms. Read more: Shefali Shah says ‘boycott Bollywood’ trend won’t last long

Suniel spoke up amid the increasing trend of boycotting Bollywood films and stars on social media. Recently, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan faced calls for boycott and both films failed to perform well at the box office. While Aamir’s film had collected ₹45.83 crore in its five-day extended weekend, the Akshay Kumar film had a week 1 collection of around ₹37.50 crore. Both Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan had released on August 11.

At the recent event, Suniel said, as quoted by news agency ANI, “We (the Hindi film industry) have done a lot of good work too. However, people might not be happy with the type of subjects the films are having these days, and that is why we are going through such a tough time. Hopefully, this will be considered. Initially, it felt like a one-off thing but now we have been continuously seeing that people are not coming to theatres and I can’t put my finger on a reason why and what this is happening.”

Laal Singh Chaddha stars Aamir Khan in the titular role alongside Kareena Kapoor, Mona Singh and Naga Chaitanya. The film is an official Hindi remake of the 1994 Hollywood film Forrest Gump that starred Tom Hanks in the lead role. Before its release, a section of social media users said that trolls were being paid to garner attention for the film. The boycott trend against Laal Singh Chaddha allegedly began after Aamir Khan’s 2015 interview, where he said that his then-wife Kiran Rao had suggested they move out of India because of ‘growing intolerance’, resurfaced and caught attention on social media.