Madhur Bhandarkar feels boycott trend in Bollywood ‘happened largely’ after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death
In the last few months, many Hindi films such as Pathaan, Laal Singh Chaddha, Brahmastra, Rakha Bandhan, and Samrat Prithviraj have been targeted online in the form of the #BoycottBollywood trend due to some of the controversial statements made by these films’ leading stars in the past and other reasons.
Madhur Bhandarkar, who has directed some of the most critically acclaimed films such as Chandni Bar, Page 3, and Traffic Signal among others, shared his views on the boycott culture in a recent interview, connecting the #BoycottBollywood brigade with the passing away of Sushant Singh Rajput.
Speaking to Maniesh Paul in his podcast, Madhur said, “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, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, it’s not like people don’t go to watch the movies.”
“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 he struggled. It was a very unfortunate, untimely demise and from there, the anger amid the public got aggravated. It is the public’s opinion”, he further added.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Madhur Bhandarkar’s last directorial was India Lockdown, which was a direct-to-digital release on ZEE5. The film, which revisited how the Covid-19 lockdown in India impacted the lives of the citizens, starred Aahana Kumra, Shweta Basu Prasad, Prateik Babbar, Sai Tamhankar, and Prakash Belawadi in the leading roles.
