Bollywood is getting sabotaged. Time to save it.
In a country as diverse as India, there are a few things that unify. The Hindi film industry is one.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that not one Indian has remained untouched by Hindi films.
If a motley group of Telugus, Punjabis, Gujaratis, Bengalis were to meet somewhere – what would they do? Fill the conversation with Hindi songs, what else?
Over a hundred years Bollywood has given us movies to - cry with – Mother India, Devdas; celebrate Indian wins – Dangal, 83, Lagaan, Chak De; Feel patriotic – Lakshya, Swades; fight the system – Zanjeer, Arjun; get entertained – Sholay, Don, Dabang, Wanted; become socially conscious – Pad man, Toilet – Ek Prem Katha and made us better human beings – Taare Zameen Par, Hichki and Do Aankhen Barah Haath.
For millions, Hindi films are a part of their life – the barriers of mother tongue, location have been erased by the universal appeal of the Hindi films.
Unfortunately, some vested interests have cast an evil eye on this thriving industry. Almost nothing is going right. Movie after movie hits the theatres and crashes. There are a few wins – but hardly enough to bring any solace. The boycott brigades, supposed critics, troll armies, biased hyper nationalistic media personalities – they have brought it to its knees.
Today, entire film fraternity is confused, agitated and crying for help. India’s beacon of hope is being pushed into an abyss of hopelessness.
There are sadists who celebrate the failure of an Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar film – but they don’t realize the effort, manpower that goes into a movie. It took one year and four months and 600 plus workers to make the Shamshera movie set. This is often the invisible part – the sweat and toil.
When a troll or a boycott army burns a movie even before it hits the screens, it is destroying the collective dreams of all those who have worked on it. So many hopes are dashed, livelihoods destroyed, aspirations shattered. Millions who have invested their time, effort, money – their future gets jeopardized by the vested interests.
This is a lose-lose game because no creative field can work in an environment of fear. Fear of persecution and fear of failure. It is a negative spiral. Every movie that fails makes it less interesting for an investor. Less investment means less quality – less quality means less returns – and we are staring at a creative doomsday.
The Indian film industry employs close to 2 Mn people and has given us our soft power. The world dances to our music, sings our songs and gets entertained by our movies. For many Russians, Raj Kapoor is their link to India, A Shah Rukh Khan is as big a representative of the country as Sundar Pichai is.
It is getting sabotaged. As we celebrate Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav – it is time to free this industry from the saboteurs – those who are killing this industry, one tweet/one FB post at a time.
I have watched Bachchan Pandey, Rocketry, Kashmir Files - I will watch Laal Singh Chaddha – I will not let a troll army decide which movie I should watch.
If more Indians don’t do that, we will all be guilty of killing an industry that symbolizes Indianness and cause irreparable damage to the creative soul of the country.
Jai Hind!
#SaveBollywood #LaalSinghChaddha #BoycottBollywoodForever
