Vijay Deverakonda's Liger had shown huge promise ahead of release. The lead actors Vijay and Ananya Panday even promoted the film across India for a whole month. However, it has been faring poorly at the box office. Liger was projected as a pan-India film but in the Hindi markets, it has been completely rejected by the audience. While makers are trying to wrap their heads around why Liger has performed badly at the box office, distributor Warangal Srinu has shared his version behind the film flopping at the box office.
Liger sabotaged by 'boycott' culture
As per Srinu, 'boycott' culture is one of the main reasons behind Liger performing poorly at the box office. Before Liger, Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar's Raksha Bandhan crashed at the box office because of massive 'boycott' trends on social media. Trade analysts suggested that the 'boycott' culture is affecting the film business. Now, according to Srinu, Liger has not been performing well at the box office because of the people calling to 'boycott' the film.
Why was Liger 'boycotted'?
To many, Vijay Deverakonda seemed 'over confident' about Liger ahead of release. At one of his press meets, he put his legs up on the table while a reporter asked him a question. This was perceived as 'arrogant' by social media users. In another instance, Vijay spoke about the audience not wanting to watch the film and said, "Kaun rokenge dekh lenge. I feel that there is no room for fear, when I had nothing, I didn’t fear, and now after having achieved something, I don’t think there needs to be any fear even now. We have mother’s blessings, people’s love, God’s support, a fire inside us, we will see who will stop us!."
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Film distributor Srinu on Liger's flop status
Liger has attributed the 'boycott' culture as the reason for Liger's box office failure. He told ETimes, "Do we realise that in our quest of banning actors and filmmakers, based on preconceived notions, we are ruining poor families of the poor crew members. The movies will decrease and lead to chaos in several families who depend on it for their daily meal. The movie industry is going through a very bad phase and social media users who are members of the unjustified ban culture that has come to dominate, should be ignored. There seems to be a concerted campaign against us, almost every day. This is totally uncalled for. See the film and if you don't like it, thrash it. But how can you thrash it before it has been released and you haven't seen it?"
Liger box office report
For the Hindi version, Liger did a business of Rs 15.1 crore till Monday. In its first week, it is expected to do Rs 18 crore business for the Hindi version. Such numbers are dismal.
Read: Liger box office collection Day 6: Vijay Deverakonda-Ananya Panday starrer disappoints the audience
Vijay Deverakonda's upcoming films are Kushi, opposite Samantha and Jana Gana Mana, directed by Liger helmer Puri Jagannadh.
