Bollywood movies and controversies have always had a relationship. There’s always a film that one section or the other from the society don’t approve of for whatever the reason be. This can significantly impact the run of movies as many groups threaten the cinema goers not to watch particular films in theaters. However, this is not limited to theatrical releases and OTT platforms are also facing similar problems, the latest example being Netflix’s Maharaj.
The movie finally released on Netflix after getting approval from the court and instantly became the number 1 trending Indian movie on Netflix. So it is important to ask whether these controversies are only helping in the promotion of the films?
Maharaj is not the best thing to come from the house of Netflix yet it didn’t need any advertisement as the court case gave it all the publicity it needed. So at this moment it’s important to ask if the filmmakers are looking to have some controversy around their films to seek attention?
There are few things common between The Kashmir Files, The Kerala Story and Article 370. All of them were involved in heavy controversy but all of them also managed to do good business at the box office. In all of them, the filmmakers seem to be striking the perfect balance between controversy and legitimacy that saved their movies from getting banned.
A few years back, nationalism was a sure recipe for success in Bollywood. It looks like controversy and more specifically religious controversy has taken its place. One of the reasons why a large number of people are dissatisfied with Bollywood is because they keep on producing movies on these templates but we’re to blame just as much for buying into it.
