Saif Ali Khan on Boycott Bollywood calls and ‘Vikram Vedha’s box office performance

The Hindi film industry is going through a rough patch with many big-ticket films facing boycott calls and being trolled online. Now, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, actor Saif Ali Khan has addressed the same. He feels that the section of the audience calling for a boycott of Hindi films is not genuine and they are using the industry’s ‘bad’ movies as a launchpad for attacks.

‘This section of the people, who I think are (boycotting) I am not sure if it’s the genuine audience. Using a soft target, for example a bad movie, to say, ‘Ok let’s ban this or cancel that’… I also think it is really sad that Bollywood has not shown unity. Until we have that ability to take that step, we will never really know the truth of how effective this boycott culture is,’ he said.

Saif added that cancel culture is scary and it is a worldwide phenomenon. He said when a film is about to release, artists keep a low profile and get it out of the way.

Saif is also confident in India people will always come to watch films as entertainment is limited in cities like Mumbai.

‘These people, who say ‘boycott boycott’, I don’t think are the audience. People like entertaining themselves, people like watching movies, so they are not going to not watch a movie…We don’t really have much to do in our country, you can’t go for a walk in the park or take a quiet boat ride with your kids. Entertainment is limited in cities like ours, so movies is one of those things,’ he added.

In the interview, he was also asked why Hindi films are not clicking with the audience, to which Saif replied that just like everybody else he is clueless.

The actor said the box office performance of his recent release ‘Vikram Vedha’ was disappointing, in the sense that it opened and ran and everyone who saw really liked it, but philosophically looking back, the reason they should be polite to each other is that nobody has any clue what works, what doesn’t or what’s going to happen.

On the work front, Saif Ali Khan will next be seen in Om Raut’s ‘Adipurush’, co-starring Kriti Sanon and Prabhas.