Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha in the eye of a ‘boycott’ storm
AN INDIAN remake of Hollywood blockbuster Forrest Gump has been hit by boycott calls over years-old comments by its leading star, Aamir Khan.
Laal Singh Chaddha, an Indian spin on the 1994 Hollywood hit with Tom Hanks, is expected to be one of India’s biggest films of 2022.
This is due in large part to its main star, 57-year-old Khan, one of the Indian industry’s most bankable actors with past blockbusters like 3 Idiots (2009) and Dangal (2016).
However, ahead of the film’s release on Thursday (11), the internet is awash with clips from a 2015 interview when Khan expressed a growing “sense of fear” and that he and his then-wife discussed leaving India.
“She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day,” he said.
More than 200,000 tweets, many from supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been shared since last month calling for people to spurn the movie with the hashtag #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha.
“Aamir Khan married two Hindu women, yet named his kids Junaid, Azad & Ira. Kareena (Kapoor) married a Muslim & promptly named her kids Taimur & Jehangir,” said one tweet, referring to the children’s typical Muslim names.
“That’s enough reasons to boycott Lal Singh Chaddha, basically a production from Bollywood’s Love Jihad club. #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha,” it added, using a derogatory term coined by some Hindu nationalists who accuse Muslim men of marrying Hindu women and forcing them to convert.
Nicknamed “Mr Perfectionist”, Khan has been credited with pushing films beyond Bollywood’s traditional fare of song and dance into tackling social and cultural issues.
He also hosted a TV chat show called Satyamev Jayate that discussed touchy themes such as rape, domestic violence, and corruption.
The furore over his new film – which adapts Hanks’ famous line to say “life is like a golgappa”, an Indian snack – is such that last week Khan stressed his patriotism.
“I feel sad that some of the people... believe that I am someone who doesn’t like India,” he told local media.
“That’s not the case. Please don’t boycott my film. Please watch my film.”