Actor Vijay Deverakonda met the theatre owner who dubbed him ‘arrogant’ following the failure of his Bollywood debut ‘Liger’.
After the poor Box Office numbers of ‘Liger’ in the opening weekend, the South superstar, who marked his debut in Bollywood with the title, met Manoj Desai – executive director of Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir – and expressed regret over his ‘arrogant’ remarks which fueled the ‘boycott’ trend towards the movie.
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A picture widely circulating across social media sees Deverakonda and Desai together, as the two smiled and posed for the picture during a recent meeting. Reportedly the actor met the exhibitor and excused for his comments which he believed were taken out of context.
For those unversed, the controversy started earlier this week during a promotional outing of ‘Liger’, when the ‘Arjun Reddy’ actor addressed the ‘boycott trends’ for his movie saying, “We’ve put our heart into making this film. And I believe that I am correct.”
He maintained, “I feel that there is no room for fear, when I had nothing, I didn’t fear, and now after having achieved something, I don’t think there needs to be any fear even now.”
“Maa ka aashirwaad hai, Logon ka pyaar hai, Bhagwaan ka haath hai, andar aag hai, Kaun rokenge dekh lenge, (We have mother’s blessings, people’s love, God’s support, and a fire inside us, we will see who will stop us)!”
Apparently, the comments didn’t go down well with Desai, and he bashed the actor for being ‘arrogant’, contrary to the industry superstars.
In response to the actor’s statement, “Watch the movie or if you don’t wish to then don’t watch,” Desai said, “If the audience will not watch, what has the situation of Taapsee Pannu become? What are Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan going through?”
He further suggested the actor move to OTT platforms and serials, and asked him to ‘leave the theatre’.
“Why are you showing smartness? People won’t even watch on OTT. Such behaviour of yours is creating trouble in advance bookings of our theatres.”
With ‘boycott’ and ‘cancel’ culture gaining momentum in Bollywood, several new releases have fallen victim to it off late and bombed at ticket windows. Some of the shocking Box Office failures include ’83’, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Raksha Bandhan’, and ‘Shamshera’ among many others.
Also read: Alia Bhatt speaks up about ‘Boycott Darlings’ campaign
About ‘Liger’, the high-octane actioner stars Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishnan, Mike Tyson, Ronit Roy, Makarand Deshpande, and Ali along with Vijay Deverakonda. Directed by South industry’s seasoned filmmaker Puri Jagannadh, the project is backed by Karan Johar’s production banner ‘Dharma Productions’.
The sports drama released earlier this week in Hindi and Telugu, along with dubbed Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada versions.
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