In this photo taken on July 29, 2017, Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput attends the 2017 BIG ZEE Entertainment Awards ceremony in Mumbai. (Photo by STR / AFP)
Grief over the passing of Sushant Singh Rajput has long given way to anger against Bollywood among fans in Britain. That anger is now sowing the determination to deny Bollywood its market, just as Bollywood is seen to deny a role to the rising star and eventually his life itself.
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News of the arrest of Showik Chakraborty and others seen as hostile to the late Sushant Singh Rajput star brought some limited celebrations among a plethora of SSR fan groups in Britain. SSR’s following has grown enormously since his death, through an admiration for him that has now turned to anger at him. Bollywood has claimed distant shores as its own; Anger now flows from those distances to bite Bollywood.
Fans in Britain have stepped up their campaign for “justice for Sushant”, as have SSR fans around the world. The news that Showik was to be arrested on Friday night, and that his sister and alleged Rajput girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty could also be arrested, brought some vindication that these are the “villains” whose ways led to the death of SSR in some way, even if current measures were limited to the investigation of the Bureau of Narcotics Control (NCB) into the possession and exchange of prohibited drugs.
The fury of SSR fans is increasing day by day in Britain. Demonstrations outside the multiplex cinemas are being planned for September 14, when fans from around the world unite online and through similar protests. “We are planning to demonstrate outside a leading multiplex cinema on that date to join protesters around the world,” Rashmi Mishra of the Inspiring Indian Women group told CNN-News18. “We want to give those Bollywood people a message that they cannot be considered gods. They must not forget that we were the ones who made them ”.
The silent but clear message is that ‘we fans’ can undo them too. Hardly a fictional series has garnered as much attention as developments in the investigation that followed the suicide death of Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14. Not many of his fans are willing to believe it was suicide; in any case, they believe that even if it was, it was Bollywood that pushed it to the limit.
The extent to which fans boycott Bollywood cinema and a perceived set of filmmakers and stars may become clearer next year. The Covid-19 pandemic has currently halted theater attendance, and public memory can be notoriously short.
“If justice is done, people will forget,” says Roopa Dewan, who will lead a protest outside a London movie theater on September 14. “We want to end nepotism. The mafia has to go. “
Fans in Britain and around the world, he says, have come together to click the dislike button on YouTube to watch movies from producers and stars they dislike after SSR’s death. “They are getting the message that people are not watching those movies right now.”
Grief over the rising star’s passing has long given way to anger at Bollywood. That anger is now sowing a determination to deny Bollywood its market, just as Bollywood is seen to deny Sushant Singh Rajput a role and eventually his life itself.
Fans hired a truck last week to tour London carrying SSR photos. Her sister Shweta Singh Kirti tweeted her thanks for that effort. Now she’s leading the campaign for the September 14 protests.
“We trust the CBI to give us the truth,” says Roopa Dewan. “In the past, the IWC has been silenced many times. This time we want the whole truth to come out. You can see what is happening. What started as messages within groups has now become a movement. “
The new round of protests follows Shweta Singh Kirti’s earlier call for global prayers and an active Twitter gathering of SSR fans against some of Bollywood’s more established.
Fan fury would seem inevitable, given the huge and growing success of Bollywood films in Britain for a long time. Several multiplex theaters across Britain are showing Bollywood movies, and the foreign market has become juicy distribution territory. That’s why the new fan group campaign should be of concern to Bollywood producers and distributors.
On Friday, the Producers Guild of India issued a statement that the “tragic death of a promising young star” is being used as a “tool to smear and slander the film industry and its members.” That statement only came as confirmation to SSR fan groups that their campaign is reaching Bollywood as expected.
What Bollywood is concerned about, and should, is the threatened next step in taking the protest from the streets to the seats. Nothing could harm Bollywood more than more empty seats in movie theaters.
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