2022 was a tough year for Bollywood. The Indian film industry was trying to stand up on its feet once more after the enormous effect that the Corona pandemic lockdown had made. As the theaters opened there was a rush of big blockbusters to make it to the theaters. However big Bollywood movies like Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj, Ranveer Singh's Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera, Aamir Khan ’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Ajay Devgn’s Runaway 34 failed miserably at the box-office.
Before the release of all these movies, social media users started the boycott trends slamming the movie stars or the production houses for one reason or another making it difficult for even big-budget movies to attract a crowd in the theaters. Aamir who was also the producer of his last release was so badly affected by this trolling, and the way this boycott trend affected his movie’s performance at the box office decided to take a break from acting.
Even Akshay Kumar who usually signs multiple movies in a year has stepped out of some of his earlier commitments. And all this because most people believed that the boycott trend somehow did affect the performance of these big-budget movies. On the other hand, Tollywood biggies like Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, KGF 2, and now Rishabh Shetty’s Kantara became pan-India blockbusters. So there was a group of people who suggested that soon the Southern movie stars will dominate Bollywood.
Importantly, some movies like The Kashmir Files, Kartik Aaryan , and Tabu’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 became big hits even amid these boycott trends. Many believed that it was mostly because these movies were not boycotted by social media users.
However, now that big movies like Brahmastra, Drishyam 2, and more recently Bhedia have become hits, the thought process that the boycott trend can determine the success of a movie is now fading. Or rather it can be said that people have decided to ignore such trends and make their decisions based on the teasers, trailers, and story of the film.
Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus will be the last big Bollywood release of 2022 and given the track record of the Golmaal franchise director, it is bound to be a super hit. So slowly it seems the boycott trend will be a thing of the past as it has already started losing its impact.