Union minister Anurag Thakur hits out at calls to boycott films

As the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Film Festival began on Friday, Anurag Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, addressed the film boycott trend during a press conference, saying, "if anyone has an issue, then they should bring it up with the department."

While addressing the press, when the Union Minister was asked how the boycott trend's impact, he said, "In a country like India where we want to increase our soft power and our films are making a name for themselves globally, then such things definitely have an impact.

"If anyone has an issue, they should bring it up with the department. But sometimes people make comments without even having the full knowledge and it does have an impact, which should not happen," he added.

Last year, several Bollywood movies including 'Laal Singh Chaddha', 'Raksha Bandhan' and 'Brahmastra' among others and even the recently released 'Pathaan' faced the boycott trend's ire on social media.