"Rome is the mob."
On Shah Rukh Khan's 50th birthday, two of his many engagements of the day were two interviews, separately, with Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt, who had flown to Mumbai for the occasion. True their journalistic streaks, they asked Khan about the 'intolerance' issue, which was making the administration uncomfortable as more and more writers returned their state bestowed awards. Very subtly but clearly Khan mentioned that although he supports any kind of peaceful protests, he won't return his award (he is a Padmashri). About intolerance he thought the entire world has become intolerant because the internet enables people's voices heard instantly and youngster's react too quickly. It was not India specific at all nor did he target one set of ideology.
This created furore for next few days as his statements were appropriated to suit a narrative. He was vilified for things he didn't say nor meant. Apart from Bhai, Shah Rukh has a huge and loyal fan base, which no other actor can boost of (not even Aamir Khan despite giving bigger blockbusters). In virtual wars, mainly fought on twitter, his fans come out in full force. When some BJP leaders asked him to go to Pakistan (the usual destination), his fans started trending #BJPGoToPakistan in India, to which the Pakistani counterparts trended #BJPStayinIndia, a rather unusual trend on twitter showing the mammoth fan following he commands and the twitter wars they win for him.
Once the dust settled, a much more concerted campaign was planned to undermine Khan's forthcoming film Dilwale,produced by his wife. The aim was to hit where it hurts the more and the theme was simple - We made him a superstar but he insults us. Let's boycott his films. WhatsApp Messages, Facebook posts and even Twitter trends were created to spread the message. The entire campaign may look like a spontaneous reaction of offended people, but it was not. Much of it was 'engineered'. There are organized groups on the internet who undertake such projects. The leaders are politically motivated but the foot soldiers are often the average people who do not have much of critical thinking to discern the noise from information, revolution from propaganda, bigotry from nationalism.
Upon release, Dilwale opened on a high note at the box office in India despite many screenings were stopped in different parts of the country. It started to lose grounds to Bajirao Mastani, which was also released on the same day, from Monday onwards. To a regular observer, it would appear that the content of Dilwale was bad and hence film didn't work. But it is more complex than that. On the first day, the rating of Dilwale on BookMyShow was 58% which gradually increased to 68% over the weekend. If the content of the film was a factor here, the reverse trend would be true. Usually for such blockbuster films the initial rating is good because the first audience are the die-hard fans who rate the films better despite its content. So, this unusual trend of starting on a lower note and climbing the rating chart for a supposedly bad film clearly proves that a pre-planned strategy was at place to rate the film badly. To spread a bad worth of mouth so that the neutral (who make the bulk of the viewers) audience stay away. For such big films, content comes to play on the second week, not on the 4th day itself. PK was not liked by many yet it became the highest grosser of all time. Except Bajrangi Bhaijaan, most of Bhai's films are average at best yet they do tremendous business at the box office as much of the business come in the first week itself, a result of star power and marketing blitzkrieg, which Shah Rukh has in abundance. The first week of Dilwale should have been much better despite clashing with Bajirao Mastani.
The effect of negative campaign can be seen in box office collections in different territories. Dilwale has done terrific business in the East and South India where Bajirao Mastani is not even close to competition. The film has earned like a solo release, but these territories are not major contributors to Hindi film business. These are also the places where right wing politics is not in dominance. In Western and Northern India, Bajirao Mastani had initially given stiff competition and eventually took over the business from 4th day onwards. It can't happen that one part of the country likes the content of Dilwale and other part rejects. There are certainly other factors at play. Similarly in overseas,Dilwale is a blockbuster and Bajirao Mastani is nowhere close to competition except in the USA, a country famous for Modi Bhakts. Irrespective of the content of the film, the smear campaign against Dilwale has hurt its box office prospect, losing money in the range of 25-30 Crores in India (I am no Box Office Pundit but just an observer). The lost money of Dilwale has gone to Bajirao Mastani, as counterproductive effect. Though Bajirao Mastani may not do as much business as Dilwale overall, it will beat the latter in India box office (Bajirao Mastani being a higher budgeted film may lose more money despite being a hit). This would be the first time the Baadshah would lose any significant box office (India) battle in his long illustrious career, despite Dilwale being one of his better films in recent years.
This is not one off case nor a theory about the organized internet mob. In the perception battle social media has become very important and hence it would be manipulated by the powerful. Another example is the campaign against Barkha Dutt's new book The Unquiet Land. Within weeks of its release, the book has been reviewed by about 3500 people with everyone giving one star. Only 38 of these reviews came from verified purchase, and those too were intentionally purchased to show as authentic review as someone posted a picture of the book thrown into a dustbin. The hate mongers were so much in rage and so oblivious of the world of books that some rated another book by same name thinking it was written by Barkha. Barkha posted a facebook posts which was asking people to rate the book badly. on Flipkart, of 365 reviews (most giving the lowest rating), none were verified purchase showing how fake and misleading these reviews are. Surprisingly even the bestselling authors like Chetan Bhagat do not get that many reviews so quickly. But the campaign is unlikely to affect the book sales and would be counterproductive as the book would garner publicity and generate curiosity. The book remains number 1 bestseller in Amazon's political section.
However, Shah Rukh was not as lucky as popular films are for mass consumption and certain section can be easily influenced. Previously screenings would be stopped to hurt a film star, but it is logistically difficult to execute. Now internet has enabled the mob to battle out in the virtual world. If such endevours succeed, it would be dangerous as criticism and unpopular voices would go silent making the society stagnant, eventually leading to its downfall, as history has repeatedly shown us. We must resist the internet mob as much as the real one to safeguard our beautiful diversity.
P.S. - I have loved Dilwale and have already seen it 3 times. I am a die-hard fan of Salman Khan.
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