In the last few years, there have been crossover of talents between the Hindi film industry and the four South Indian film industries. Most of these crossovers have been successful such as Sanjay Dutt playing the villain Adheera in KGF Chapter 2 or Atlee directing Shah Rukh Khan in Jawan. But a few of them have had opposite results too.
When a huge Tollywood star made his Bollywood debut last year, his film received horrible reviews and also turned out to be one of the biggest box office flops. We are talking about Vijay Deverakonda and the sports action film Liger, which was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu. Directed by Puri Jagannadh, Liger starred Ananya Panday as the leading lady.
Deverakonda has a massive fan following in Tollywood as he is one of the few actors who isn't related to any of the film families. His 2017 film Arjun Reddy increased his stardom manifold and since then, his Bollywood debut was hugely awaited. After Arjun Reddy's Hindi remake Kabir Singh starring Shahid Kapoor became a blockbuster in 2019, Vijay's Hindi film debut Liger was announced in January 2020.
The film suffered production delays after March 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic. In February 2021, it was announced that Liger will release in cinemas on September 9, 2021. But the filming was delayed again due to the second wave of pandemic and Liger finaly made it to cinemas on August 25, 2022.
Made on an estimated budget of Rs 150 crore, Liger collected Rs 48.58 crore gross (Rs 41.17 crore) in India and Rs 7.60 crore from overseas taking the worldwide collection to Rs 56.18 crore, as per the entertainment tracking portal Sacnilk.com and turned out to be a box office disaster. Vijay hasn't signed any Hindi film after Liger.
Apart from the two leads, Liger also marked the Indian cinema debut of former American professional boxer Mike Tyson. Ramya Krishnan, Ronit Roy, and Makarand Deshpande also played pivotal roles in the film bankrolled by Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur under their banner Puri Connects and Karan Johar under his company Dharma Productions.
