Vijay Deverakonda on boycott Bollywood trend: ‘Shouldn’t we release our movies?’
Actor Vijay Deverakonda has been busy promoting his pan Indian film Liger across India. On Saturday, as ‘Boycott Liger’ trended on social media, Vijay addressed the issue during a press event in Vijaywada. The Arjun Reddy actor was asked about the ‘boycott’ culture that has engulfed across Hindi cinema and its actors at the moment. Liger became the target of trolls after Vijay supported actor Aamir Khan and his latest film Laal Singh Chaddha.
Vijay said that he, along with Karan Johar, Charmme Kaur, Puri Jagannadh and others in the film’s team have worked hard for three years to complete the film amid the pandemic. At the Vijaywada event, Vijay said, “Three years back, in 2019 we started this film. Back then, this ‘boycott Bollywood’ wasn’t there. All this started in the lockdown and we were already into the shooting schedules by that time. At that time, we felt like there was no option better than Karan (Johar) sir to take our movie India-wide. He took Baahubali and showed us a way in North India which was an unknown territory for us. Script and production was ours. When we requested him to release the movie in Hindi, he warmly took it and now we got humongous reach in the North.”
The actor, who plays the role of a boxer in the film, also expressed concern regarding the reason for the social media hatred. “I don’t know exactly what is their (online trolls) issue and what they want. We are correct on our side. I was born in Hyderabad. Charmme was born in Punjab. Puri sir was born in Narsipatnam. Shouldn’t we work? We have worked hard for three years to make this cinema. Shouldn’t we release our movies? Should we sit in homes? You all have been seeing the love that the audiences have been showering on us. I am doing movies for those audiences. I need those audiences. There is no need for any fear until we have these people for us,” Vijay said.
He added, “When we are correct and when we do our dharma, there is no need to listen to anybody and let there be anything coming, we must fight. I have no fear and I know that in complete honesty, we have done it with our hearts. We all are from this country and we know how much we do for our people and country. We are not from that batch who sits in front of computers and tweets. We are the one who steps in first if something happens.” Just before the event, Vijay had tweeted a similar statement.
Liger is a Hindi and Telugu bilingual and also stars actor Ananya Panday in the lead role. The film will release in theatres on August 25.
