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Boycott Plan Against Aamir Khan Show Fails

A P Kamath

Despite what the promoters of the show described as a relentless effort to have it canceled or at least turn into a flop, the Aamir Khan-led event in Houston was sold out last weekend.

Several Pakistan organizations and community leaders had asked their followers to boycott the show, which also featured Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee. They were piqued by Aamir Khan's alleged announcement that part of the profits from the show would go to the families of Indian soldiers killed in Kargil.

Though he denied making the statement, several Pakistani groups asked the show be boycotted, saying he had also acted in and produced "anti-Pakistani" film, Sarfarosh.

"But the show went full," said Vijay Pallod, a community leader, who estimated nearly 3,000 people turned out, a substantial number of them being Pakistanis. "And it went on without a hitch."

He said the organizers were upset by the boycott call that they started calling various Indian organizers on the eve of show, asking them to pass the word to their members that the show was not canceled and rumor-mongers should not be trusted.

"We don't do it normally, but we passed the word about the show at our Janmashtami event last week," he said.

Since the show had several Pakistanis as co-sponsors, their own economic interest prevailed, if nothing else, and they sent feelers the show should not be boycotted, sources said.

"By the time the talk of a boycott began circulating, hundreds of Pakistanis had bought tickets," said a source. "They were not going to forfeit their money." The weekly India Herald reported that Sangeet, a Pakistani-sponsored radio show, carried an interview with Rai despite the ban call.

Local Indian American publications quoted a spokesperson for the local Urdu Times who said that past Indian movie shows in Houston were successful because of the "generous" support of the Pakistani community. The call for a boycott was justified, a Pakistani community leader said because Indian businessmen have started asking for the boycott of Pakistani businesses.

This was an apparent reference to a controversy in the South Asian community in Chicago, hundreds of miles from Houston.

The Pakistani community has accused businessman Bharat Bharai of having called for the boycott. But Bharai says he had protested against a specific group of Pakistani businesses that were raising money to support militants. Barai also said the Pakistani people were as much of a victim of militants since their government was diverting huge funds to help the militants, and as a result, the ordinary people in Pakistan were suffering.

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