While Liger is receiving negative reviews from movie critics and audiences alike, a theatre owner in Mumbai believes actor Vijay Deverakonda’s indiscreet comments on the boycott trend also harmed the movie’s box office performance. Manoj Desai, a theatre owner in Mumbai, castigated Vijay Deverakonda for his “arrogance” and added that he should have learnt from Aamir Khan.
Liger, one of the most anticipated movies of 2022, had a disastrous opening on its first day. The negative word of mouth and critical reviews have further exacerbated the collections for the movie across the weekend.
Manoj Desai, executive director of Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema, two of the well-known and among the oldest theatres in Mumbai, slammed Vijay Deverakonda for his comments on the boycott trends. While speaking with BollywoodLife, Desai said, “Why are you showing smartness by saying ‘Boycott our movie’? People won’t even watch on OTT. Such behaviour of yours has put us in trouble and impacted our bookings. Mr Vijay, you are ‘Devarakonda’, not ‘anaconda’. You are talking like an anaconda. ‘Vinaash kaale vipareet buddhi’, when the time of destruction inches closer, the mind stops working, and you are doing that. Anyways, it’s your wish.”
He further said that Vijay should have learnt lessons from actors Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Taapsee Pannu, all of whom had a rough outing at the box office of late after facing boycott calls for their respective movies.
“Mr Vijay, it seems, you have become arrogant, ‘Watch the movie or if you don’t wish to, then don’t watch’, haven’t you seen its impact? If the audience will not watch, see what Taapsee Pannu, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar are going through. I had high expectations from the movie, but such statements during the interview had harsh impacts. One shouldn’t do this and never pay heed to hashtags,” Manoj further added.
Earlier, while discussing whether the boycott trend will affect Liger, Vijay arrogantly said, “Kaun rokega dekh lenge (we’ll see who can stop us).” A few days ago, Deverakonda had said, “I think we are giving this too much attention. Toh karne do (boycott), kya krenge hum. Hum toh picture banaayenge, jinko picture dekhna hai vo dekhnge. Jinko nahi dekhna vo tv pe yaa phone pe dekhnge,” triggering boycott calls against his movie.
Aamir Khan starrer ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ and Akshay Kumar’s ‘Raksha Bandhan’ face boycott calls
It is worth noting that Aamir Khan starrer ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ failed miserably at the box office after it faced boycott calls on social media over the actor’s past statements and movies that hurt the sentiments of people. While some people boycotted Laal Singh Chaddha for his comment that he was mulling over migrating out of India due to “rising intolerance”, most boycotted it because of Aamir’s anti-Hindu stance in his movie PK.
Akshay Kumar starrer Raksha Bandhan also fell flat at the box office after Hinduphobic tweets by the movie’s writer went viral on social media, spurring boycott calls against the film.
While Taapsee Pannu’s film ‘Dobaara’ did not face any concerted boycott campaign, however, the fact that Anurag Kashyap directed the movie may have played its part to keep the audiences away from movie theatres.