Actor Vijay Deverakonda recently met Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema Executive Director Manoj Desai in Mumbai. They met just a few days after Vijay said ‘kaun rokenge dekh lenge (who will stop, we will see)’ amid a trend of boycotting his film Liger. Manoj later criticized Vijay for his statement and called the actor “arrogant”. Read also: Vijay Deverakonda has become arrogant, says theater owner after his ‘dekh lenge’ comment on Liger’s boycott trend
In a picture shared online, Vijay and Manoj are all smiles as they posed together. Andhra box office shared the picture on Twitter and wrote, “#VijayDeverakonda met Mumbai exhibitor #ManojDesai and regretted his recent comments on Boycott/OTT issues (which have reportedly been taken out of context ). Will promote Liger in Dubai tomorrow in the #AsiaCup.”
One fan commented: “Legit made the effort to clear up the misunderstanding.” While one tagged Vijay and wrote, “You can’t please everyone,” another said, “It’s like too much drama.”
Recently, there have been calls to boycott films like Laal Singh Chaddha, Hrithik Roshan’s Vikram Vedha’, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan. There is mass hysteria surrounding the new trend with many actors fearing that it might affect their film business. Actor Vijay Deverakonda’s film Liger also fell victim to the trend recently.
Talking about the same, Vijay told ANI in an interview, “We have put our hearts into making this film. And I believe I am right. I feel there is no room for fear, when I had nothing, I did it” not you are afraid, and now that I have achieved something, I don’t think there is any need to be afraid 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)!”
Manoj didn’t like Vijay’s comment. Talking to Filmi Fever, he said, “Vijay sir, you have become arrogant, ‘Watch the movie or if you don’t want to, don’t watch it.’ If the audience doesn’t watch, what is Taapsee Pannu’s status? What is Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan going through? Want yours too… Why not work in OTT? Work in good serials in Tamil, Telugu and OTT platforms and leave theatre. ‘Boycott our movie’ why are you smart? People won’t even watch on OTT. Such behavior creates problems for you in advance bookings of our theaters. Mr Vijay, you are anaconda and not ‘Konda Konda’. You talk like an anaconda. “Vinaash kaale vipareet Buddhi (when the time of doom approaches, the mind stops working) and you do this.”
He added, “Why are you saying all this nonsense? Taapsee did the same and looked at her situation. Now, are you doing? Are you feeling good about it?… I had high expectations from the film, but such statements during the interview have hard impact…Don’t go for hashtags, in the end, you’ll only regret it.”
Liger marks Vijay’s debut in Hindi cinema and was released on 25 August. The sports drama also features Ananya Panday in her first multilingual film.
