Director Ram Gopal Varma has opened up on the failure of Vijay Deverakonda's Liger and stated that the leading star's provocative statements made during the film's promotions made a negative impact on the film. During the promotions of Liger, Vijay had to face the heat of netizens, and there was a #BoycottLiger trend on social media.
As per the report of Times Now, RGV was quoted saying that the audience respond negatively to Karan Johar's films post-Sushant Singh Rajput's demise. "Vijay is naturally aggressive on stage. He has attention-grabbing antics. But the fundamental reason why there was a Boycott Liger movement in Bollywood is because of Karan Johar who is associated with the project. Ever since Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise, it has become common for Bollywood folk to boycott Karan’s films."
Ramu further added that unlike other South Indian stars like Prabhas, Ram Charan, and Jr NTR, Vijay was arrogant in the comparison. "Another factor here is humility. The Hindi folk were mesmerised by Jr NTR, Ram Charan and Prabhas. The down-to-earth nature of these stars impressed the Hindi audience. They were amazed to see the humility of the South stars after seeing the arrogance of Bollywood stars all along. Then Vijay came along with his natural aggressive speeches at Liger events and that also triggered them. Liger gave enough material for the boycott movement," Varma added.
For the unversed, Liger was released in cinemas on August 25 with mixed-to-negative responses from the audience and critics. Liger also starred Ananya Panday, Ramiya Krishnan, Ronit Roy, and Makrand Deshpande in pivotal roles. Even boxing legend Mike Tyson made a special cameo appearance in Liger. The film was directed and co-produced by Puri Jagannadh. The other producer in the film includes Charmee Kaur and Karan Johar.
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