Argument that 'boycott Bollywood' would affect poor technicians is wrong, says The Kashmir Files' Pallavi Joshi

Pallavi Joshi, who starred in and produced The Kashmir Files, talks about the ‘boycott Bollywood’ trend and the arguments against it.

The year 2022 has seen a number of trends in the entertainment world. South films have had a greater success rate than Hindi films, smaller, unheralded films have worked wonders while bigger ones have failed, and most big films have faced calls of boycott for one reason or the other. The hashtag ‘boycott Bollywood’ has trended almost nonstop on Twitter over the past few months with merely the target changing each week. While actors and filmmakers have urged people not to boycott their films without watching, some have even argued that such boycott affects the thousands of poor technicians and crew members too.

Pallavi Joshi talks about the boycott Bollywood trend.

Whether the boycott Bollywood trend has had any impact on films’ performance or not is arguable. But many have said that boycotting films affects the poor technicians and crew members more than the stars and producers, most of whom are quite rich already. Vijay Deverakonda, who made his Bollywood debut with Liger last week, went on to argue that the boycott hurts the whole economy. However, not everyone agrees. Pallavi Joshi, whose film The Kashmir Files is the highest-grossing Hindi film this year, says the argument is incorrect.

Speaking with Hindustan Times, Pallavi Joshi reacts to the arguments against the boycott trend and says, “Let me tell you one thing--no matter what happens, there won’t be a scenario where films will not be made. As long as films are made, people will get paid unless, of course, there is a pandemic again where everything comes to a standstill. But that is nature. But the film industry won’t be put under a lock and key. That’s a very Utopian thought. It hasn’t happened and will never happen.”

Talking about the argument that non-performance of films affects the technicians and crew members, Pallavi says, “To actually say that think about those 250 people who work on our films and what about their livelihood is a wrong argument. They have already been paid. After the release, it’s only the producer, the distributor, and the exhibitor that get stuck. Actors, technicians, all the daily wage workers have been paid by then.”

Pallavi starred in and co-produced The Kashmir Files, which was directed by her husband Vivek Agnihotri. The film, which also starred Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumaar, and Bhasha Sumbli, emerged as one of the most unexpected hits of 2022. The film grossed over ₹300 crore on just a ₹15-crore budget with no ‘big stars’ in the cast. And now, it has also found itself among the contenders for India’s pick for the Oscars this year as well.