When you make films, some flop, some ride high on acclaim and some disappear into obscurity. Be it Bollywood or Hollywood, while riding high on successes is the norm, in what is subtly appearing as a trend of sorts, when films flop, the MO of the actors is to deflect the negative attention into another positive arena.
For instance, when Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s recently released Jab Harry Met Sejal bombed at the box office, King Khan in his itinerant style deflected the attention to the highs of his cricket team, his family vacays and more. Even Anushka Sharma started posting about film Pari, in an attempt to suppress the tide with something new, and hopefully positive.
There have been Hollywood stars too who deflect attention, like Angelina Jolie, who was in the news with the much-speculated separation from her super star husband Brad Pitt. She decided to bring more of her philanthropic activities to the fore. Closer home, Shahid Kapoor’s flop film Rangoon got many a boo from film watchers. In an attempt to stop such negativity from trending, the adorable pictures of his wife Mira and daughter Misha did wow fans, who instantly forgot to crib and went into baby-talk mode! Even Shraddha Kapoor’s film Half Girlfriend’s mixed reviews prompted the actress to share a poster of her yet to be released film Haseena Parkar. And, it had the required effect, fans started applauding her!
While choosing the right films is what matters the most, actress Sumalatha Ambareesh feels, “The reason for a flop is not just because of the star. There are many people who are a part of the movie. Every actor or actress wants a hit movie but unfortunately that doesn’t happen. Celebrities have hits and flops, and if it is a flop, we try to get over it. We try to analyse what went wrong. Actors Salman Khan and Rajinikanth gave back money to distributors after movies flopped. I personally think all this has got nothing to do with distracting or deflecting attention. It does not help us in any way.” It’s more a matter of moving forward.
A scrappy social media is always armed with brickbats, and actress Lakshmi Gopalaswamy has seen this at close quarters, “Celebrities are always in the public eye. When a film flops, there are always nasty and unreasonable comments on social media. A flop movie can’t be undone, if it’s a good film, it will be picked up.” To toe a positive line seems to be the way forward... and if it deflects from negativity, so be it.
