#2020Recap: 6 trends of 2020 we are fed up of

By Fenil Seta -

December 30, 2020 - 10:34 PM IST

The unforgettable 2020 was akin to a roller-coaster ride. And as the year ends, there are some trends that have really got on our nerves. Bollywood Hungama, in this special feature, lists out the trends that we are really fed up of.

#2020Recap: 6 trends of 2020 we are fed up of

1. Bollywood being branded as a drug hub
The death of Sushant Singh Rajput and the resulting leak of WhatsApp chats of celebs have led to a section of media and people addressing Bollywood as a drug mafia. After a point, it became too much as this perception was forced down the throats of the people. The narrative built was that the celebs out here only know how to get high and get stoned throughout the day. The fact that our artists work so hard 24x7 and that the industry provides livelihood to millions of people was conveniently forgotten.

2. Boycott campaigns
Every second or third day, a section of Twitterati is offended by something or the other. And once they get even mildly offended, they start a ‘boycott’ campaign. Initially, it scared those involved in this business as everyone felt that this is going to have major repercussions. But the repeated use of this scare tactic soon made it clear that this trend is laughable and doesn’t result in actual boycott of films or film stars. It also didn’t take much time to realize that many who were calling for a boycott of Bollywood don’t really watch too many films.

3. Kangana Ranaut's rants
The talented actress is now known less for her acting chops and National Award wins and more for her Twitter drama. She ‘officially’ joined the microblogging website earlier this year and began to share her opinions on every topic under the sun. Some of her tweets also landed her in trouble big time and led to partial demolition of bungalow and a huge section of farmers coming out against her. Yet, she refuses to learn her lesson and continues with her rants. Even her ardent fans, who earlier loved her for her ‘Dabangg’ avatar, now feel that she should shut her trap.

4. Chalo Maldives
Initially, it felt great to see that celebs adapting to the ‘new normal’ and deciding to take a break by heading to Maldives. But then, netizens soon got bombarded by Maldive vacaton pictures of TV and Bollywood celebs every single day. It seemed like more than half of the industry holidayed at the beach paradise, as if there’s no other place where one could vacation. We understand that for a lot of celebs, they were paid to travel and uploaded their snaps. But we are sure there are many places in India where our celebs could have travelled and maybe had the same amount of fun and frolic?

5. Celebs claiming their OTT film would reach out to more than 200 countries
This one was an epic fail. With so many films going directly to OTT instead of cinemas, the stars were duly asked about it by the media. And these celebs were made to parrot a line by the PRs or OTT team, which is, that their film would now find a simultaneous release in ‘more than 200 countries’ and hence, they’ll get more viewership. But here's a fact check – there are only 195 countries in the world! In many countries like China and North Korea, most of the streaming platforms are not available. And there’s zero viewership in many other territories when it comes to Hindi films. It’s bewildering how not a single artist or OTT organizers did a simple Google check to get their facts right!

6. Multiplexes’ tussle with the producers
For almost 7-8 months, the theatres remained shut due to the Coronavirus pandemic. And when they reopened, the exhibitors and multiplex owners began having a fight with producers over various issues like VPF waiver, revenue sharing, reduction in theatrical and OTT window etc. A few films like Tenet got delayed by a couple of weeks for this reason. Many wondered why both the parties couldn’t solve these issues in those 7-8 months when business was at a standstill. Precious time could have been saved.