Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak 2 is at the centre of a controversy, and it hasn’t even released yet. The trailer for the film, his first collaboration with younger daughter Alia Bhatt, was released on Wednesday. It quickly became the most-disliked video on YouTube, less than 24 hours later.
At the time of reporting, the trailer had received 4.5 million ‘dislikes’ on the video sharing platform, with a massively unfavourable ‘like-dislike’ ratio. With more than 15 million views, only 2,55,000 people have ‘liked’ the trailer.
A campaign to make it the most disliked trailer on YouTube was initiated in the days leading up to its unveiling, by fans of actor Sushant Singh Rajput who, Mumbai Police had claimed, died by suicide in June. Sushant’s fans suspect Mahesh Bhatt is a part of the Bollywood jihadi mafia that ostracised the actor and was most probably behind his suspected murder. Most notably, these ‘insiders’ repeatedly figured in get-togethers where they hatched the plot.
Mahesh Bhatt, a few days before the trailer’s release, had shared a message for fans via his elder daughter Pooja Bhatt, who stars in the film too. “Today as we begin the last leg of our journey. I feel unshackled! I carry no burden, no weight. No reputation to hold on to. No mission to accomplish. Nothing to prove to anyone. If the film works it belongs to all of you. If it does not, it’s mine,” he said.
Sadak 2, a sequel to his 1991 film starring Sanjay Dutt and Pooja, will be released on Disney+ Hotstar on 28 August. The film was intended for a theatrical release, but producer Mukesh Bhatt said that they were forced to take the streaming route after the coronavirus pandemic shut down several industries, including film.
The movie which stars Alia Bhatt, Pooja Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, and Aditya Roy Kapur has been heavily trolled ever since the first look was launched.
Many Twitter users have targeted recent Netflix film, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, too. Not only did they downgrade the IMDb rating but they also explained on social media why they were doing so. The film, in a bid to make a feminist point, projects the Indian armed forces in poor light (as misogynistic), they are saying on Twitter and Facebook.
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