A lot of negative hysteria has been generated around Bollywood and a lot of it is lies

Actress Swara Bhasker is known for her outspoken nature and has never minced her words. She has always expressed her views about issues that plague society and stood up for women empowerment and equal rights. The actress who debuted with the film Madholal Keep Walking is well known for her roles in films like Raanjhanaa, Nil Battey Sannata, Anarkali of Aarah, Tanu Weds Manu and Veere Di Wedding. Meanwhile, talking about the trend of ‘Boycott Bollywood’, the actor recently said that the trend is being promoted to harm the film industry which, she believes, promotes secularism.

In an interview with a leading news portal, when asked about the social media trend of ‘Boycott Bollywood’, the actor said, “A lot of negative hysteria has been generated around Bollywood and a lot of it is lies. I like to say that the ‘bring down Bollywood’ brigade is actually running a small industry of their own. They are profiting from it. All these Twitter handles. It’s like an industry on its own.”

Swara explained the agenda behind social media trends, “It is driven by an agenda for sure. The larger part of it has been that in 109 years, Bollywood has been one of the most popular vehicles of Indian secularism. Look at the kind of films we have made, we have always given the message that everyone is equal, love is greater than societal divide. Look at the credit at the end of the Bollywood film, every regional and linguistic identity of India is always represented there.”

She further said that the film industry in its early days was spearheaded by the Parsi and Muslim communities. Calling the industry diverse in an organic way, she said, “It’s an industry which has popularised Urdu poetry and easy to digest Sufi concepts and is very diverse in an organic way. That is a problem for an agenda that wants to push a saffron kind of majoritarian identity in India. So, you have to discredit and delegitimise the most popular vehicle for Indian secularism if you want to discredit Indian secularism. That’s why Bollywood is being targeted.”

Meanwhile, Swara will be seen in Jahaan Chaar Yaar, a film written by Kamal Pandey and produced by Vinod Bachchan that also stars Meher Vij, Pooja Chopra, and Shikha Talsania.