WILL LAL SINGH CHADDHA SCORE AT THE BOX OFFICE OR FLOP?

Laal Singh Chaddha, an officially bought Indian spin on the 1994 Hollywood hit with Tom Hanks, is expected to be one of India's biggest films of 2022 - Jyothi Venkatesh

This is due in large part to its lead, 57-year-old Aamir Khan, one of the Indian industry's most bankable actors with past blockbusters like '3 Idiots' (2009) and 'Dangal' (2016).

But ahead of the August 11 release, 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 Koran Rao discussed leaving India.

There are a lot of negative reviews about the film Lal Singh Chaddha even before the release of the film. There are people who strongly feel that the film should be boycotted because Aamir Khan made a foolish badly phrased comment that he “likes” India.

The absurdity of this homegrown cancel culture is boundless. Firstly those asking for these bans haven’t seen the films that they want to be banned. They have just seen the trailer or a poster and assumed it is ‘boycottable’(to coin a new word in support of the massive trend).

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. Kiran fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day," he had gone on record then.

More than 2 lakhs 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.

Films like Fanaa, Padmavat , Parzania etc have long sparked controversy -- as well as violence -- in the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people.

But the heat being felt by Aamir Khan, one of a clutch of Muslim megastars in the industry along with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, only mirrors growing intolerance, marginalisation and vilification of the minority, say commentators according to a report in Newindianexress.com.

"There is no doubt that Aamir is being targeted by those spreading hatred towards Muslims," said a director, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of becoming a target himself.

All said done, I feel that whatever Aamir Khan may have said in haste earlier will not at all reflect at the box office and Lal Singh Chadha may be able to score well at the box office like all Aamir Khan starrers do at the box office if and if only the content is good.

And to pass the verdict on the film, we all have to wait till Thursday August 11 when the film , which also has Nagarjun's son Nag Chaitanya ,will see the light of the day.