True-blue cinephiles and ardent movie lovers are all geared up for Aamir Khan’s upcoming film ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, which is set for its theatrical release on 11th August 2022 alongside Aanand L. Rai’s ‘Raksha Bandhan’ starring Akshay Kumar. The ‘Forrest Gump’ official remake is the perfectionist actor’s next acting project after a four-year hiatus since the 2018 film ‘Thugs of Hindostan’. So, naturally the curiosity quotient is quite high. But on the same side, the negative buzz surrounding ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ has also reached a crescendo.
‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ and Aamir Khan have been on the receiving end of social media trolls with hashtags #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha, #BoycottBollywood and #BoycottAamirKhan. The apparent reason is Aamir Khan’s much publicized earlier remark on the subject of intolerance and how his former wife Kiran Rao was worried about her kids’ safety.
The reinvigorated controversy made Aamir Khan respond by saying that “I really love the country… That’s how I am. It is rather unfortunate that some people feel that way. I want to assure everyone that it’s not the case so please don’t boycott my films, please watch my films…”
But the important question is: Will social media / online trolling pertaining to Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ adversely affect or even ruin the film’s box office performance? And the answer, we think, lies in the opening words of this write-up itself.
Negative publicity and social media trolling around a film’s release can certainly catch the attention of prospective audiences who are active on social media platforms. And it even has the potential to affect a film’s opening.
But once the critics’ reviews and, more importantly, the audience verdict is out and the film turns out to be good, then the positive word of mouth has the capacity to counter the negative effect from certain quarters of social media. And it won’t stop true-blue cinephiles and ardent movie lovers from watching the movie if it’s good. The same holds true for Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’.
Aamir Khan’s aforementioned remark, the root cause for the present boycott controversy, was made in 2015. A year later, ‘Dangal’ came out, and despite the persistent outrage against the actor’s statement, ‘Dangal’ went on to become the highest grossing Indian film globally. So, Aamir Khan has previously overcome the negative brouhaha around the same controversy in 2016, and there is no reason why it can’t be done again.
Moreover, many of you might remember that before the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, #BoycottGangubaiKathiawadi started trending on social media. The lead actress and the film were brutally trolled at that time. But when the film released on 25th February, it garnered widespread admiration from movie buffs, and it passed with flying colours at the box office. And the rest is history.
So, like we said earlier, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ will be seen by cinema lovers sooner or later provided that the film turns out to be as good as the makers are promising or even half as good as the parent film ‘Forrest Gump’. The film’s early industry reports seem to be positive, so who knows ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ might even create a new box-office record like ‘Dangal’ and turn out to be the knight in shining armour for the Hindi film industry. Because “Kadi kadi chamatkar hunde hein ji (Miracles do happen).”
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