Anupam Kher on Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha facing boycott calls:”you need to accept truth’

Laal Singh Chaddha co-starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor was released last year amid boycott calls. Now, Anupam Kher has spoken about why the film failed.

Aamir Khan’s last film, Laal Singh Chaddha, had a dismal run at the box office and could not even cross ₹50 crore in its opening weekend. Directed by Advait Chandan, Laal Singh Chaddha is the Hindi remake of the 1994 Hollywood film Forrest Gump, and also featured Kareena Kapoor. Actor Anupam Kher, in a new interview, opened up about the ‘boycott Bollywood’ trend, and if it had anything to do with Laal Singh Chaddha’s failure.

Laal Singh Chaddha was released on August 11, 2022, and could not benefit from the long holiday weekend around Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day. Its first-weekend collection was ₹46 crore. The film was later released on Netflix. Now, Anupam Kher has said that ‘no power would have stopped’ Laal Singh Chaddha from working if it were a great film.

“Laal Singh Chadda was not a great film. If it was a great film then no power would’ve stopped it. Aamir Khan’s PK worked really well. The point is that you need to accept the truth,” Anupam told news agency ANI.

The veteran actor further said, “I am not for boycott trends, not at all but you can’t stop somebody from doing what they want to do. But if your product is good, it will find its audience. In fact, they will go with a vengeance. And the only way to kill this trend is to make brilliant work.”

Speaking about the ‘boycott Bollywood’ trend, Anupam also said that he feels this trend will not affect a film. If a film is good, then it will work, but if a film is bad, then it will not, but not because of the boycott trend, he said. Anupam further said that everybody has freedom of expression and if an actor has the right to say anything about any situation, then they should also be brave enough to go through the situation. He was seemingly hinting at Aamir’s old remark.

The boycott trend against Laal Singh Chaddha began after Aamir Khan’s 2015 interview – where he said that his then-wife Kiran Rao had suggested they move out of India because of ‘growing intolerance’ – had resurfaced and caught attention on social media.

Anupam will be next seen in Kangana Ranaut’s directorial Emergency. He also has The Signature, Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dino, and the upcoming thriller film IB71 in the pipeline.