On January 5, actor Suniel Shetty urged the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, to help remove the stigma around Bollywood. He also asked CM Yogi to do something about the ‘#BoycottBollywood’ trend that is becoming increasingly popular.

During an interactive session with UP CM Yogi Adityanath, who was on a two-day visit to Mumbai to discuss investment prospects in Noida Film City, actor Suniel Shetty took the opportunity to lament the impact of the boycott campaign on Bollywood. Shetty also stressed the need to bring the audience back to theatres as well as change the perception of people that all Bollywood/Hindi cinema folks indulge in wrong activities.

“There is one rotten apple everywhere, but you can’t consider all of us to be like that. People nowadays believe that Bollywood is a bad place, but we have produced some good movies here. When I did Border, I was also a part of one such film. I’ve been a part of a lot of good films. We need to come together and figure out how to get rid of the boycott Bollywood hashtag. We have to figure out how we can remove this trend,” Shetty said.

Moreover, Suniel Shetty also asked CM Yogi to discuss the ‘anti-Bollywood’ campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that “99% of the people” in the industry are good.

Boycott calls are not propaganda but against propaganda

Suniel, I would like to address you directly from now onwards. Not only you, but all the other actors, directors, producers, and technicians who are involved in creating films should be addressed directly and with honesty. First of all, many of your colleagues think it is a sinister plot against the film industry. As if some Asuras in the form of fanatics have risen from Narak to boycott Bollywood as part of some evil plan.

There are also rumours that it is being done because Khans rule the industry, which is absolutely not true. Well, let me tell you once, and for all, it is not the reason. Also, as you said, 99% of the people in the industry are good, sorry, but that’s not true. I know a few people in the industry; sadly, a large percentage is either rotten or on the path to becoming a rotten apple.

Let me take the example of a Hindi film. Do you remember the film A Wednesday starring Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, and others? Towards the end of the film, when it was revealed that the actual plan was to kill the terrorists and not save them, Anupam Kher, who played the role of commissioner, asked Naseeruddin Shah, who played the role of the unnamed bomber, why he was doing what he was doing and why it was happening all of a sudden.

Your situation and the film’s plot are quite similar. The ‘anti-Bollywood’ brigade on Twitter is nothing more than a group of ‘stupid common’ Indians who are out on social media with “6 KG RDX” called #BoycottBollywood. Let me be very clear, it is not happening all of a sudden. This is not something that sprung out of nowhere just because the minds behind the Twitter handles woke up one day and thought, “Badi boriyat hai chal taang maarte hain Bollywood ko”. It is because Bollywood has poked Hindus, the quiet and stupid Hindus, for decades.

The rot of poking the community is so deep that the best and favourite actors of the community, including Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, and others, leave no stone unturned to mock the religion whenever they find a chance! I am saying it openly and clearly because you all have come equipped with weapons against us for boycotting films. If you look at your career, there must be at least one film or one scene in which Hindus were mocked. If you find one, are you going to regret working on that project? Will Ajay Devgn or Akshay Kumar apologise for working in a film like Thank God or asking fans not to worship Shivlingam with milk, respectively?

The problem is that no one in Bollywood is ready to accept their mistake and correct the course. Even the actors who have zero credibility in the industry are blaming the public for their films failing at the box office. The problem, Suniel, is not the public but you, the people in the industry. The point is simple. Get your act corrected, and the public will stop boycotting the films. No mocking Hinduism. No subtle anti-India narrative, and yes, please ask your colleagues to maintain it while promoting the films. No sane Indian will like to watch a film with actors who went to meet the “Tukde Tukde” gang at JNU.

I have not named any Khan here. There is a reason. No one expects them to come out and accept their past mistakes, especially Aamir Khan. Lal Singh Chaddha might be a bad film, but it was not the reason it flopped at the box office. Even worse films than LSC by him have worked well in the past. But now, those mistakes should not be repeated.

And yes, watch the entire sequence of A Wednesday’s climax. Each and every dialogue fits perfectly in the scenario. If you are worried about the lakhs of people getting affected just because the public wants to punish the few rotten apples then ask the rotten apples to correct the course, and the lakhs you are worried about will be saved. It is always better to get rid of the rotten apple, Suniel. Again quoting a famous dialogue from Bollywood, “Hindustan mein jab tak cinema hai…”, please fill in the blanks.