But how effective are these boycott calls? Industry spokespersons downplay the impact, pointing to the minuscule universe they influence. Recent numbers from the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology show that WhatsApp has more than 53 crore users, YouTube about 45 crore, Facebook nearly 41 crore, and Instagram, 21 crore. Twitter, where much of the boycott calls originate and go viral, has a user base of only 2.3 crore. “Boycott’s impact on the box office is an unsubstantiated story,” said Gautam Jain, partner in Ormax Media, a media analytics and consultancy firm in Mumbai. “All kinds of films have faced boycotts; some worked and some didn’t.”
