After a five-year hiatus, King Khan’s Pathan is set to retake Bollywood by storm, but first, ‘Pathan’ must deal with a storm of controversies. The movie is expected to release in January 2023, and just a month before that, on December 12, the first song of the movie, ‘Beshram’, was released on YouTube. The controversy began with a scene of the song in which the heroine of the movie is seen dancing in front of the sea wearing an orange-coloured bikini, and there the problem arises around the orange-coloured dress of the heroine as well as the title of the song ‘Besharam rang’ which means ‘shameless colour’.
Initially, the Madhya Pradesh home minister Mr Narottam Mishra first, pointed out that scene & lodge complained against the dress & song title. Later that controversy became so viral that many political leaders came forward & supported the complaint to take action against that film.
This current controversy is not new; it has been seen many times before that several Bollywood movies have been boycotted in the face of various controversies. All these movie boycotts and controversies started mainly after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020, and the conflict has gradually taken root as a direct and indirect result of anger and hatred towards Bollywood in people’s minds.
The title of the song, “Behram Rang,” which means shameless colour, and the heroine’s orange bikini outfit have sparked controversy. As a result, a defamation case was filed by the Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh against the makers and crew of the movie. If we talk about the current situation in India, it can be said that two parties have been created around this whole incident.
On one side, Hindutva is calling for a boycott of the movie due to disrespectful and insulting behaviour towards Hindus; on the other side, people who are Shahrukh fans are seeing this controversy as just an unnecessary waste of time. In every movie, heroines are seen wearing bikinis or wearing different-coloured clothes, but in reality, only because of the colour of the clothes and the song lines are there so many problems.
According to them, every Bollywood film is portrayed as a medium of religious and political transmission, with the goal of promoting particular propaganda. According to Hindutva, the indirect promotion of the Muslim religion is going on through the movie, and on the other hand, it is said that it is playing with the honour of the country, i.e., defaming the Hindu religion.
The boycott started trending on Twitter before anyone knew whether the movie was a hit or a flop. The movie’s famous hero or heroine, or the plot, no longer has any value. Due to political unrest, nowadays, a movie is often rated as a hit or a flop on social media before its release.
Every day, more people see memes making or trolling that incident on social media, fueling the debate. More media coverage can be seen against or in favour of that incident. Several places, including Madhya Pradesh, are seen opposing the movie, and on the other hand, several political leaders have come together to protest the film.