Cancel Culture Hits Hindi Cinema

Dispensing with minimum norms is a must for discharging social responsibility. The business of persecuting others is blatantly unfair, even bordering on crime. This year, the Hindi film industry found itself in the throes of a major crisis caused by boycott calls against big banners and top-notch stars. India’s dream merchants had the fright of their lives. This also coincided with lukewarm receptions to several big-budget movies with high profile actors whose presence in the past generally drew large initial crowds to the exhibition halls, often fetching hefty profits for the dream merchants.

While a large number of movies are destined to lose money almost everywhere, production companies consider the risk worth taking because of the glamour involved, the prospects of profits dangling at them or simply the creative urge in them. But facing sustained campaigns, bolstered by furious cancel culture, is a malice of genuine grievance.  When the world’s most prolific movie producing industry undergoes such traumatic trend that put stars and big banner on tenterhooks, cine-critics work overtime analysing how the ban culture provoked in the social media would run its course. Some insist content, more than any sinister campaign, decides the ultimate fate of a film fare. 

Ire of fire

Others conclude that hate-filled social media comments quell the fan euphoria created by publicity blitz which consume up to 40 per cent of the budgets of large scale productions with big cast and crew, expensive settings and deployment of special effects consultants. Yet another group considers cronyism and nepotism infecting the entertainment world whereby many a brilliant talent cannot make the full length of their potential without an influential recommendation or patron.

When a series of big banners in India this year found their offers bombed at the box office, apprehension caught them and their peers. The boycott band hit them hard. They lost considerable sleep over their production prospects. Stars and their family members pursuing acting careers are targeted with severity for the slightest flaw perceived to be felt. The grudge against them is that nepotism is widely wielded to prop up star children, disparaged as “nepo-kids”.   

The current hate campaign in the social media vehemently targeted huge-budget Laal Singh Chaddha and Brahmastra, among others. While the former met disaster at the box office, the latter scraped through the red line on the balance sheet. The two’s staggering production costs, if combined, would easily have funded 50 average-budget other feature films. While the boycott call can be expected to wane in its scale and implications, the reminder is that there is no greater wrath than that of netizens who feel being ignored or hurt. 

Hindi movies — dubbed from India’s regional films or otherwise — get widely screened, at times emerging as top revenue collectors within and outside the country with the world’s largest population. Most movies in most countries, including India, tank at the box office but producers’ sheer energy, determination and creative/professional urges prod the companies to carry on. Jingoism on screen content has no qualms about dumping fair play in narratives. It does not hesitate ditching ethics and feeding the audiences with distortions of facts in the name of fictional licence. Misplaced sense of patriotism also infects many a movie.

The 1982 bilingual historical drama Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough and released in Hindi and English amid euphoric anticipation, went on to become a money spinner and collected several Oscar awards. However, audiences did not fail to note that British actor Ben Kingsley served in the main role as Gandhi. The Indian film industry, with its history dating back to the 1912 and emerging as the largest film producing country ever since the 1970s, felt insulted. Some critics insinuated racism played the culprit behind the “flawed” casting. 

Cinema with borders

Given the emphasis on identity inclusion gaining ground on various fronts, cinema content, cast and crew will be more intensely monitored in the future. While subtlety might be exercised in some societies, restraint could be thrown to the winds elsewhere. A new wave of polarisation is not risk-free. And the cine-world might be a target for scorching scrutiny from multiple quarters — each with own agenda not proactively pursued earlier in sustained manner. 

For all the rhetoric about free expressions, the seemingly fervent champions of free speech chicken out at crucial times when their own convictions and sensitivities are at stake. War movies are often jingoistic in treatment, including those churned out by American, British, French and Indian companies. Germans shy away from such undertaking that give any hint of some of the big battles that Hitler’s regime won in the first three or four years after World War II broke out. 

The self-censorship could be an attempt to stave off any potential accusations that German companies promoted nationalist sentiments echoing the 1930 and the 1940s, which enabled extreme rightists to gain power and cause the outbreak of World War II. Chinese feature films continue to create commercially successful fares.  In 2021, China became the world’s largest movie market for the second consecutive year. Its box office registered more than $7.2 billion. All but two of the ten top grossing movies were domestic productions.

Craving screen space in China make major Hollywood banners think thrice before crafting their scripts right. For free expression has a price even in the “world’s largest democracy”. Hollywood and British companies eyeing for China’s movie market go out of the way to ensure smooth access to the communist country’s screens, with the record number of 80,000 screens in the world’s most-populous country. 

In terms of numbers, Nepali film industry ranks among the top ten. If total transactions and revenues are the chief criteria, it sinks somewhere at the bottom of the ranked rungs. From Aama to Prem Geet 3, Nepali movie land has come a long way. Novelty value gets eroded with repetitions in content style and substance, which disenchantments movie-goers. In this age of multi-channels and numerous easily accessible options for diverse contents catering to diverse interests is a challenge confronting cine companies.

(Professor Kharel specialises in political communication.)