I think this boycott culture is a phase: Madhur Bhandarkar

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar recently said that the film industry ‘ignored’ late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. He was talking about the ‘boycott culture’ against Bollywood films that has gained steam over the past few years.

Talking about the recent trends of boycott calls against Hindi films, Madhur told Maniesh Paul on his podcast, “I have noticed that this boycott happened largely after the passing of Sushant Singh Rajput. Maybe the industry ignored him. He was from a non-film background and he came and struggled. It was a very unfortunate, untimely demise and from there, the anger among the public got aggravated. It is the public’s opinion.”

“It has happened many times before. Like in the case of ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, people watched it and it was nice. I think this boycott culture is a phase. If the film is nice and the content is strong, people will go and watch. People watched ‘Kantara’, ‘The Kashmir Files’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’. It’s not like people don’t go to watch the movies,” the filmmaker added.

Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide in June 2020. Ever since his death, his fans and several celebrities from the industry have claimed that some big names in the Bollywood industry sidelined and ignored the actor. Since June 2020, several online trends have also emerged, calling for bans on big films.