Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday met film personalities in Mumbai to discuss various opportunities that Hindi filmmakers can avail while shooting movies in Uttar Pradesh’s upcoming Film City. At the meeting, actor Suniel Shetty asked help from Adityanath to get rid of the anti-Bollywood sentiment that’s been building up on social media with the hashtag #BoycottBollywood gaining momentum.
Shetty first spoke about how the Film City in UP should encourage locals to become a part of it and provide them with employment. He said, “We should focus on creating actors. It is of utmost importance to create technical teams as well. So, when you go there, you go with a small unit and encourage locals. That’s when the company will be a hit, when locals get employment.”
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The actor then spoke about how audiences are not going to theatres to watch films and how they should be encouraged to go back to cinema halls. He said, “Today if we are facing a problem then it is not about cost or subsidy, but it is to do with the audience. We have to bring the audience back to theatres. It is very important.”
Suniel Shetty also spoke about the importance of working towards warding off the negative sentiment the audience has towards the Hindi film industry. He said that the hashtag #BoycottBollywood is alarming.
He said, “The hashtag that’s going on, Boycott Bollywood, yeh ruk bhi sakta hai aapke kehne se (it can stop if you say). It is important to spread the word that we are doing good work. One rotten apple is everywhere, but just because of that you can’t call the whole industry rotten. Today people think that Bollywood is not a good place, but we have made such good films here. I was a part of one such film too, when I did Border. I have been a part of many good films. We have to come together and work towards how we can get rid of the Boycott Bollywood hashtag. We have to figure how we can stop this trend.”
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Suniel Shetty further requested Yogi Adityanath to talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the anti-Bollywood sentiment as “99% of the people working in the industry are good people”.
