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Before the release of Ayan Mukerji’s spy thriller War 2, starring Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR, producer Naga Vamsi heaped praises on the film at a promotional event in Hyderabad. Vamsi, who distributed the film in the Telugu markets of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, encouraged fans of Telugu superstar Jr NTR to make the dubbed Telugu version of the film an even bigger hit than the original Hindi version.
However, his claim fell flat on his face when War 2 underperformed not only in Hindi but across all regional languages at the domestic box office. The Telugu version opened lower (Rs 22.75 crore) than the Hindi version (Rs 29 crore) on its opening day on August 14 on the occasion of Independence Day eve. Eventually, the Hindi version collected Rs 177.59 crore, whereas the Telugu version could only garner Rs 56.74 crore, less than one-third of the Hindi version, after the film’s five-week run.
Vamsi got a lot of trolling on social media for the dissonance between his tall claims before the release and the eventual outcome of the Telugu version. Now, he’s finally opened up on the same. “The mistake is on their side, but we faced the heat (laughs). We didn’t make the film. I’m happy that the trolling we faced wasn’t for a film made by us,” he said on Sithara Entertainment’s YouTube channel.
“Mistakes do happen. Everyone makes mistakes at some point in time. Aditya Chopra garu is the biggest producer in Indian cinema. NTR anna and I trusted YRF blindly, but it misfired,” added Vamsi. While War 2 was made on a reported budget of over Rs 400 crore, it managed to mint only Rs 364.35 crore worldwide.
War 2 is the sequel to Siddharth Anand’s 2019 blockbuster War, which earned Rs 475.62 crore at the worldwide box office, more than twice of its budget of Rs 170 crore. Starring Hrithik Roshan, Kiara Advani, Jr NTR, and Anil Kapoor among others, War 2 was produced by Yash Raj Films and is the latest instalment in Chopra’s ambitious YRF Spy Universe.
Last year, in a roundtable on Galatta Plus, Vamsi claimed that Bollywood had been making movies only for Bandra and Juhu (posh areas in Mumbai) till the South blockbusters came to its rescue. “This might sound harsh, but we South Indians have changed the way you look at cinema — even for Bollywood. Because you guys were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. But now, with films like RRR, Baahubali, Animal, Jawan, etc., these have kind of changed your version,” said Vamsi.
Also Read — Naga Vamsi lashes out at critics of Mad Square: ‘If you hate me that much, ban my films, don’t take ads…’
However, producer Boney Kapoor interjected and said in response, “Even the hero of Pushpa 2 has said that he is a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He could have said he’s a big fan of NTR. Which means, it is not the language. The barrier is never a language. Barrier is what is good, what is bad.”
