Actor Yami Gautam has voiced her opinion on what she described as a growing ‘paid hype’ trend in Bollywood in recent times. The actor took to her X account on Thursday to say that the trend of spreading negativity against another actor/a film is a ‘plague’ that will significantly impact the future of our industry.
Actor Hrithik Roshan, who worked with Yami in the film Kaabil, supported her in the comments.
What Yami wrote
Yami began her post by saying that she has been meaning to address this issue for a long time. She said, “This so called trend of giving money, in the disguise of marketing a film, to ensure good ‘hype’ for a film is created or else ‘they’ will continuously write negative things (even before the film is released), until you pay ‘them’ money feels nothing but kind of extortion. Just because this arrangement is accessible to anyone- whether to ‘hype’ a film or spread negativity against another actor/a film is a plague that is going to affect the future of our industry in a big way.”
She went on to add, “Unfortunately if anyone feels- it’s harmless & let’s do it because it’s the new ‘normal’, is mistaken. This monster of a ‘trend’ is eventually going to bite everyone. If truth is exposed about a million things under the garb of who & what ‘success’ is over the past 5 years esp , unfortunately it’s not going to be a pretty picture for many.”
‘I say this as a deeply concerned member of the fraternity’
Yami added that in the South industry, these practices are not in place because there the unity is quite strong. She added, “I urge our esteemed producers, directors & actors to come together in order to arrest this termite of a culture at this stage itself & discourage it . I say this as a wife of an extremely honest man who has given everything to this film with his undying hard-work, vision & grit along with his team to create something that I know India shall be proud of. I say this as a deeply concerned member of the fraternity who, like many other industry professionals, wishes to see Indian cinema blossom with its best potential & not the other way around. Lets not kill the joy of film making & presenting it to the world & letting the audience decide what they feel. We need to protect our industry environment.”
Hrithik’s response
Hrithik came out in support of Yami, and wrote: “More than anything , the golden thing that gets lost and leaves them and all of us impoverished is the journalists true voice , a chance for them to inform all the creative forces behind a movie what they felt , thought , what they applaud and criticise. Only true opinions have the potential where feedback helps us evolve. Their own right to freedom gets unknowingly usurped and so does our chance of growth. Without freedom of expression, without the truth helping us evolve , what job satisfaction can they or any of us hope for ?”
Yami was last seen in the courtroom drama, Haq, which also starred Emraan Hashmi. The film opened to positive reviews and performed well at the box office. Meanwhile, Hrithik was last seen in War 2, which released during Independence Day. The film was a criticial and commercial failure.