In the past few months, Bollywood has witnessed several boycott trends on social media. The matter took a serious turn when activists tore posters and cut-outs of Pathaan in Ahmedabad to protest against the song Besharam Rang picturised on Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. After the incident, Suniel Shetty raised the topic during a meeting with Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Mumbai and requested him to intervene and stop the trend.
Now, after Suniel's plea to Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) issued a statement on Friday about anti-Bollywood and boycott trends. The federation condemned the act and stood up in support of actors, technicians and all those who are involved in the process of filmmaking. "The recent trend of ‘#Boycott Bollywood’ has been affecting the producers and lakhs of workers working for the films and it has been seriously noted by the FWICE as it has raised a major situation of survival of the common workers, technicians and the artists who are earning their daily bread from this industry," the statement read.
#BoycottPathanMovie
# , @iamsrk @deepikapadukone
, #
BajrangDal pic.twitter.com/cth0STQRbj— Bajrang Dal Gujarat (@Bajrangdal_Guj) January 4, 2023
FWICE further added, "A film is made with passion and dream of success. However, these blooming dreams get shattered by such trends which are many times influenced by people believing in hatred and those who do not support peace, harmony and unity. People have been barging into the theatres and threatening the public and forcefully vacating the theatres. There have been threats to the producers and the lead actor/actresses. They are abused on social media platforms with filthy/vulgar language."
The statement read, "We strongly condemn these acts and the boycotting of any film which is already certified by the final cell of the film authorities which is the CBFC. Getting a film certified through the CBFC is itself an achievement as the film and the filmmakers are going through the entire process of certification. The protestors of the film should thus follow the right channel and report their grievances against the film to the CBFC and other governing authorities rather than blindly coming up with such a destructive trend to blatantly boycott the entire industry."
FWICE requested the government to intervene and put an end to the trend. "FWICE stands strong in support of the producers who are creating films and generating employment to lakhs of people and help them to earn their living and survive with dignity. We urge the government to intervene in the matter and stop this trend of ‘Boycott Bollywood'," the statement concluded.
@fwicemum strongly condemns the ongoing trend of #BoycottBollywood and seek immediate protection against the #hooliganism in #theaters and the #threats to the producers pic.twitter.com/XCBNKEGI3G
— Federation of Western India Cine Employees (@fwicemum) January 6, 2023
In 2022, almost every Hindi film faced boycott demands. Films like Gangubai Kathiawadi, Raksha Bandhan, Laal Singh Chaddha, Liger, Shamshera, Samrat Prithviraj, Brahmastra and many others were targetted on social media for unnecessary reasons.
(Source: FWICE Twitter)
