Last Updated: July 21, 2022, 21:16 IST
Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday made their way to the press conference of Liger in Mumbai. (Pic: Viral Bhayani)
Liger star Vijay Deverakonda talks about the comparisons between North and South films. The actor will be seen sharing the screen with Ananya Panday.
The debate on Bollywood versus South cinema sparked off with star-studded big-ticket South Indian films earning big at the box office and many medium-budget gems winning critical acclaim. While some believe that novelty and conviction are paying off for filmmakers and actors down south which is giving Indian cinema a much-needed boost, others opine that the rise of regional film industries has blurred the lines between them and Bollywood.
For actor Vijay Deverakonda, the North-South divide is a deterrent that should be diluted and he feels that the Indian film industry is already on the right path. At the trailer launch of his upcoming multilingual action drama Liger on Thursday, he said, “There has always been a case where technicians from South were always working in Hindi cinema and we had many actors like Anil Kapoor sir who made their debut in a South film. Sridevi ma’am was from the South. It has become more evident now but both industries have always been working together. It’s about time that this happens. I’m looking forward to the day when there’s no longer a North-South divide in cinema, it is called Indian cinema and we are called Indian actors. I think that is something that we should look forward to.”
Liger marks his first collaboration with ace filmmaker Puri Jagannath. Talking about his experience of working with the director, who is known for his masala entertainers, an excited Deverakonda shared, “Puri sir is the original gangster of commercial cinema. He made his debut as a director with a film called Badri (2000), which was a huge blockbuster. All of his films have been huge. Many of his films have been remade in several languages including Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, and Bhojpuri. One of his films was remade by Rohit Shetty, Simmba (2018), which was a huge hit. I feel every actor should work with him at least once.”
When asked about his journey through the making of Liger, Deverakonda added, “I see this as a big dream and ambition coming to life. I love telling stories and I like telling them to massive audiences with packed auditoriums and what’s a bigger auditorium than all of India!”
