Dharma Productions’ Brahmastra is scheduled for release on September 9, 2022, and it is considered one of the most anticipated films of the production house this year. With actors including Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna, and others, Karan Johar, owner of Dharma Productions, must be expecting a great response from the audience.

However, people behind the movie also must be very worried given the recent big flops in Bollywood and the trend of the boycott of several movies for various reasons.

Audiences have been calling for the boycott of several Bollywood films in recent times, with even massive films like Laal Singh Chaddha and Rakshabandhan seemingly having fallen prey to this trend. The next big film set to come out in theatres is Brahmastra, directed by Ayan Mukherji, and starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles.

Twitter is flooded with #BoycottBrahmastra, and with the film still, a week away from release, this trend is only expected to get bigger as the release closes in. After Brahmastra, there is Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, which is the biggest film set to be released in Bollywood, and the trend for that has already begun on a small scale. In the meantime, all these boycott trends have given rise to something much bigger.

Audiences are now calling for the boycott of Bollywood on the whole, with #BoycottBollywood trending on a large scale on Twitter. The boycott movement seems to be getting only bigger in the industry, and it is to be seen how Bollywood will recover from all of this.

And if see closely, we find many incidences where Bollywood actors have not only been insulting Hindus of India but also have commented on Hindu deities in a most derogatory way. There is one video in which Ranbir Kumar says two quotes, "Ye Bikni ab nahi tikni" and "Mera haath, Jagannath". 

#AliaBhatt broke her silence in an interview on the trolling she faced for being a star kid; says “I can’t keep defending myself verbally. And if you don’t like me, don’t watch me” #BoycottBollywood.

 This has not gone down well with many. On social media, Alia Bhatt is trending and quite a few are severely bashing her. Some are calling her 'arrogant' and some are planning to Boycott her upcoming film Brahmastra which also stars Ranbir Kapoor. The latest boycott call for Brahmastra does not bode well for an industry that has delivered a string of big-budget flops. The boycott call also raises questions about Ranbir Kapoor’s capability of delivering a hit.

And making the worst fears of the film-makers true, Brahmastra is also facing trouble as one of the production house’s Development Executive, Shreemi Verma, is under fire for her tweets mocking Hindus with Gau Mutra jibes that have gone viral on social media. Verma has deactivated her account after the uproar on social media.

Shreemi Verma deactivated her account

Shreemi Verma tweeted a series of derogatory and anti-Hindu tweets on her verified Twitter handle in the past few years. In 2019, she proudly declared that her father was a Sanghi, but she was not. ‘Sanghi’ is a term used by the left-leaning section of society to mock Hindus and is often used as a shield by them when they do not have any logical argument. Sanghi literally means someone associated with Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh or RSS.

A few days back, she wrote, “Bhakts legit have such small d**k energy it’s just embarrassing”. Bhakts is a term used by the left-leaning section of the society used for Hindus supporting RSS/BJP or followers of PM Modi. Though the phrase means ‘showing cockiness or masculinity without skills’, some netizens took the literal meaning of it and said that she was suggesting that ‘Bhakts’ have small genitals.

When she started getting criticized for the tweet, Verma got irked and wrote, “Oh my God, everyone has gone crazy. In fact, they are all proving my point right.” She added, “At least do a Google search to understand what it means. Even expecting Bhakts to fact-check is hilarious to even expect.”

She did not stop there and further mocked those who were opposing her. This time, she brought in their mothers and said, “Those who are asking me how I know that you guys have small ‘Di#k’, your moms told me about it because no other woman is actually going to look at yours.” While in the beginning, there was some genuine confusion as everyone is not well versed with urban slang like ‘small d**k energy’, Verma’s rant in the following tweets implied that she also used it for its literal meaning, proving how much hate she carries for the Hindus, especially those who are devoted towards Hinduism or follow RSS or BJP.

As the opposition to Shreemi intensified on social media, she locked her account. However, by then, her tweets were dug, and more derogatory content surfaced. Screenshots of three tweets from 2020 and 2021 were shared on social media by Twitter handle Gems Of Bollywood, where she had used the Gau Mutra jibe that is used by Islamist terroirists and left-liberals to mock Hindus because they worship cows.

On March 19, 2020, she wrote, “If Modi does a gaumutra shots party at 8 pm, it’ll be pretty wild.”

On March 14, 2020, she wrote, “2 parts lime 3 parts tequila and a dash of gaumutra,” while replying to a tweet of one OCreativityGang (an account that does not exist anymore.

On April 27, 2021, she wrote, “if this situation doesn’t require urgency, then what does? lack of gaumutra? is that when we should panic?” This was the time when India was gripped by the deadly second wave of the Covid pandemic.

With the screenshots of her anti-Hindu tweets, netizens started to post on Twitter that she is associated with Dharma Productions, and by that association, she is linked to the upcoming movie Brahmastra. Netizens called for a boycott of the movie for its association with such an Hinduphobic person, which must have led to worries in the production house, and she eventually deactivated her account.

She is not the only one associated with Dharma Productions or the upcoming film Bhramastra which is under attack. Alia Bhatt recently said on camera that if people do not like her work, they can skip watching her films. Actor Ranbir Kapoor’s video where he said he was a beef-eating foodie also went viral attracting criticism.

Significantly, apart from the common people, some big personalities are also involved in the boycott of the film 'Brahmastra'. ISKCON Kolkata Vice President and Spokesperson Radharaman Das shared a video from his official Twitter account. In this video, actor Ranbir Kapoor can be heard saying that he is a big fan of beef. The host who is accompanying Ranbir in the viral video, however, interrupts him and tells him to be red beef (buffalo meat), to which Ranbir also agrees.

Hows Netizens trending #BoycottBrahmastra

References:

opindia.com