Boycott Bollywood Is 'Paid Trend', Says 'Flagbearer Of Boycott Campaign' Swara Bhasker

Swara Bhasker doesn't think that the ongoing boycott trend in Bollywood is the major reason behind films not doing well at the box office. The actor said that an example of this is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', led by Alia Bhatt, which is one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films this year despite facing calls for a boycott.

Swara called herself the 'flagbearer of boycott campaign' as she noted that she has faced a lot of boycott calls. She also said that she doesn't consider the present to be a bad time for the Hindi film industry despite several films not performing well at the box office. Swara noted that while she considers the explosion of content to be one of the reasons behind the current 'flux,' she is not sure about the contribution to boycott trends to it.

Swara told Zoom, "I don’t know how much boycott trends actually affect the business. Alia Bhatt got a lot of negative attention on social media after Sushant (Singh Rajput)’s tragic suicide, which was of course completely unfair — the kind of accusations that were being made about a lot of Bollywood A-Listers. At that time, Sadak 2 had released, it got a lot of boycott calls and negative publicity and it did very badly."

The actor further explained, "When Gangubai Kathiawadi came out, the same kind of conversations started-- about nepotism, Sushant, the same boycott calls, but people went and watched it and loved it. This boycott business is hyped up, it’s a small group of people who are driven by a certain agenda. They are hatemongers, they hate Bollywood, they want to destroy Bollywood, and are spreading malicious nonsense lies about Bollywood...And I think they are earning from it...We've enough evidence to prove that most of these are paid trends. There are also people who used Sushant’s tragedy for their own personal agendas and benefit."

Swara will next be seen in 'Jahaan Chaar Yaar', a film directed by Kamal Pandey that also stars Meher Vij, Pooja Chopra, and Shikha Talsania. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on September 16.