Director Puri Jagannadh’s Liger can essentially be called a debut engine. A bilingual film in both Telugu and Hindi was Vijay Deverakonda’s debut in Hindi cinema while Ananya Pandey made her debut in Telugu cinema. Additionally, international boxing legend Mike Tyson, who has also appeared in Hollywood and Hong Kong films, made his acting debut in Indian cinema.
Mike Tyson, whose appearance was believed to act as an attraction for the audience in the theatres, had an extended cameo in the climax of the film. However, even the combat sports legend could not save Liger from tanking at the box office. With overwhelmingly negative reviews and poor word of mouth, footfall has been unexpectedly low at theatres screening the film.
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Since Liger hasn’t even surpassed the Rs. 20 crore barrier yet, the producers and investors are finding it difficult to recuperate from the loss. Amid reports of Liger’s poor performance, the reported payment Mike Tyson received for the film has been making the rounds online.
He was reportedly charging more for a few minutes of screen time than Vijay Deverakonda, according to an earlier claim. Well, a person close to Liger has divulged the sum, and it is certainly huge. According to a report in Bollywood Hungama, Mike Tyson reportedly took home a significant sum of Rs 25 crore. The source further stated that Puri Jagannadh was enthusiastic about the notion of including Mike Tyson in the movie, but neither co-producer of Liger Karan Johar nor Vijay Deverakonda was. It was on Puri’s insistence that the team agreed to sign the boxer turned actor.
It is also interesting to note that although this was Mike Tyson’s first role in an Indian film, he has already had a brush with Indian cinema earlier. You may be surprised to know that Liger is not the first time Mike is appearing on Indian screens. In the year 2007, Mike appeared in a promotional song for the Bollywood film Fool N Final starring Shahid Kapoor, Sunny Deol and Ayesha Takia. The music video, which he starred in, was filmed in Los Angeles. Ahmed Khan was the film’s director, and Firoz Nadiadwala was its producer.
