Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar has made a name in the industry with brilliant films like Chandni Bar, Fashion, and Page 3. Besides his films, Madhur is famous for being a blunt man. He has dropped some truth bombs related to glamour industry and seems like he is back again with another one.

In a recent interview, the filmmaker opened up on the untimely demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and what happened to cinema after his death.

Madhur on boycott culture

In a conversation with Manish Paul on his podcast, Madhur said that the culture of boycott in Bollywood is not particularly new to the film industry. Despite cancel calls, people go to theatres to watch films if it has good content. For example, in case of film ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, people saw it and liked it too. They saw South’s superhit film ‘Kantara’, Bollywood film ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, etc. and these films proved to be blockbusters. According to Madhur, boycott trend is a phase and moreover, a small group of audience who demand ban on certain films is entitled to have its opinion.

Backing his saying, Madhur said that a few years before the boycott trend started, his film Indu Sarkar, which was set on the lines of Emergency, faced political opposition. However, at that time no one from the film industry stood by him. Madhur stated, “Many people who talk about freedom of expression did not even tweet when my film was in trouble. But I have always stood for other people’s films. I felt bad, I was fighting a lonely battle, but nothing could be done.”

Madhur on how Sushant Singh Rajput’s death affected boycott culture

Taking the conversation forward, the director said that as per his observation, the boycott trend grabbed pace after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. He also revealed that maybe the industry ignored Sushant. Madhur quoted, “Actually Sushant was from non-filmy background and he had reached here after a lot of struggle. It is very unfortunate that he died so soon. His untimely demise further increased the anger among the public.”

For the unversed, Sushant Singh Rajput breathed his last on June 2020 at his home in Bandra, Mumbai. According to police, he had committed suicide.