Vijay Deverakonda is constantly in the limelight as he is aggressively promoting his Bollywood debut movie Liger with his co-star Ananya Panday. He has been answering a lot of professional as well as personal questions during these promotions. In a press meet held a couple of days ago in Hyderabad, the Tollywood superstar was asked whether his movie Liger is a remake of Ravi Teja’s film Anota, the Arjuna Reddy actor promptly replied that his film is not a remake of any movie and that he will never do a remake.
Now that statement has been taken in a different way by fans who believe that it is indirectly a slap on the face of Bollywood’s prominent actors and directors who have been reaping the benefits of the original concepts from regional movies. Be it Wanted which Boney Kapoor produced under the directorship of Prabhu Deva or Drishyam which was originally a Malayalam movie led by Mohanlal, many big Indian superstars have benefitted from the remakes.
Wanted was the movie that brought back a struggling Salman Khan into superstardom whereas Drishyam gave Ajay Devgn’s career a boost and another super hit. From Ghajini to the latest very successful Kabir Singh, most of the superhits from Bollywood in recent times have been remakes of Southern movies.
More remakes are in the process including Kartik Aaryan’s Shehzada and Hrithik Roshan’s Vikram Vedha. That is why what Vijay Deverakonda said is an indirect dig at these so-called A-listed Bollywood stars and directors who are struggling to find an original theme and concept for movies. Incidentally, most of the recent films from big banners like Shamshera, Prithviraj, Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Raksha Bandhan have been big flops.
With the Southern stars emerging as pan-Indian superstars, it has become difficult for Bollywood to copy the South Indian movies. The only way left for Bollywood to get rid of this unexpected crisis is to come up with original ideas and concepts and give a platform to really talented people and not based on their legacy or heritage.