A few days after the executive director of Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema Manoj Desai called Vijay Deverakonda ‘arrogant’, the Liger star made his way to meet him in Mumbai. For the unversed, a few days ago, the theatre owner’s comment came shortly after Deverakonda, addressing the boycott Liger trend during the promotions of the film, had said, “kaun rokenge dekh lenge (who will stop, we will see).” Following the statement, Desai called Deverakonda’s attitude ‘arrogant’.
In a picture doing the rounds on the internet, it seems like Deverakonda met Desai. While Desai and Deverakonda are yet to share details of their chat, it seems like the actor might have wanted to wave the white flag and wanted to mend the situation.
A picture of their meeting was tweeted by the Twitter account of the Andhra box office along with the caption, “#VijayDeverakonda met Mumbai Exhibitor #ManojDesai and expressed regret about his recent comments about the Boycott/OTT Issues (which are allegedly taken out of context). He will be promoting Liger in Dubai tomorrow at #AsiaCup.”
#Liger :#VijayDeverakonda met Mumbai Exhibitor #ManojDesai and expressed regret about his recent comments about the Boycott/OTT Issues (which are allegedly taken out of context). He will be promoting Liger in Dubai tomorrow at #AsiaCup (Courtesy – Filmi Fever) pic.twitter.com/Xa78C1lBEf
— AndhraBoxOffice.Com (@AndhraBoxOffice) August 28, 2022
Speaking with ANI ahead of Liger’s release, Deverakonda had said, “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, a fire inside us, we will see who will stop us)!”
His response did not go down well with Desai. Speaking with Hindustan Times, Desai said, “His comment, ‘Watch the film in the cinema, else it’ll go to OTT’, was irresponsible. As per reviews, the content of the film is also weak. As actors are doing well on OTT, they are not thinking about theatres.”
“It’s not just Vijay. Many A-listers have made irresponsible statements. We’ve seen boycotts for Raksha Bandhan, Laal Singh Chaddha, Do Baara and now Liger. Brahmastra’sboycott has also begun. Stars must refrain from a political view and be cautious with statements,” he added.
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Meanwhile, Liger has not performed as per expectations. The film, which marked Deverakonda’s Bollywood debut and also starred Ananya Pandey in the lead, opened to poor reviews and low box office collections. As of Saturday, August 27, trade analyst Taran Adarsh revealed that the Hindi film had not even touched the double-digit at box office.
“#Liger opens to mixed response on Day 1… Good/ fair in mass pockets, dull/ordinary at metros/multiplexes… Needs to improve its performance on Sat and Sun… Thu [preview shows] 1.25 cr, Fri ₹ 4.50 cr. Total: ₹ 5.75 cr. #India biz. Note: #Hindi version,” Adarsh tweeted on Saturday.
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