Aamir Khan marked his return to cinemas with the Forrest Gump adaptation Laal Singh Chaddha. The film had a low opening at the box office and hasn’t touched the Rs 50 crore mark even after a weekend.
Certain reports claimed that distributors had asked producers for ‘monetary compensation’ because they suffered losses. However, Viacom 18 called the reports ‘baseless speculation’ in a statement.
Viacom 18 CEO Ajit Andhare told ETimes, “There are no external distributors, it’s being distributed by V18Studios, and no money is lost in the first place. The film is still running in theaters both in India and internationally. This is baseless speculation.”
Calls to boycott Laal Singh Chaddha have been trending on the internet for a while, especially after Aamir Khan’s statements about ‘growing intolerance’ in India from 2015 resurfaced.
Aamir had earlier urged Indians to not boycott his film during a press interaction, “I feel sad that some of the people who are saying this, in their hearts, believe that I am someone who doesn’t like India. But it is untrue. It is rather unfortunate that some people feel that way. That’s not the case. Please don’t boycott my film. Please watch my film.”