Liger, which hit the theatres on August 25, was produced by Karan Johar in association with Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur. The latter recently spoke about the performance of films in general at the box office. The producer’s opinion is that considering the easy availability of content for the audiences, movie makers should create films that entice them into coming to theatres. She also gave examples of how well South films like Kartikeya 2, Sita Ramam, and Bimbisara performed at the box office.
Speaking about it to Free Press Journal, Charmme Kaur said, “Definitely, people have access to better content in one click just by sitting at home. The whole family can watch the biggest budget films on television, and until you don’t really excite them, they aren’t coming to the theatres. But, this is not the case in Bollywood. In August, three Telugu films – Bimbisara, Sita Ramam, and Karthikeya 2 – did phenomenally well, which made Rs. 150–170 crores. It happened in the same country. It is difficult to understand since it doesn’t mean people in the South are crazy for films. It is a scary and depressing situation.”
On the other hand, she also spoke about the delay in the release of Liger. She revealed that they had unanimously decided that the film will have a theatrical release and also added that it felt like it was their responsibility to let films like RRR and Pushpa release before. She shared, “We started the first schedule of Liger in January 2020, we met Karan Johar in 2019, and it has come out in 2022. We held back from coming to theatres for three years as we were extremely confident that Liger was a theatrical release irrespective of the first and second lockdowns, third wave, or theatres opening to 50% occupancy. It was our responsibility to let other major films, such as RRR and Pushpa: The Rise, come out first. Then, we lost summer and rain arrived, so we had to release on August 25. We faced constant hurdles, but we never gave up.”
Liger marks the Bollywood debut of Vijay Deverakonda and is the first pan-India film of Ananya Panday. The film is directed by Puri Jagannadh and it released on August 25 in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
