Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda‘s much-anticipated Hindi debut Liger tanked at the box office, resulting in losses for the distributors of the film, especially in the southern market. Now, the film’s director and co-producer Puri Jagannadh is reportedly receiving death threats from distributors over their financial loss. Puri has asked for police protection.
According to a report in Pinkvilla, Puri has written in the police complain that the distributors cannot threaten him in any manner. As per the filmmaker, if the distributors had any problem, then they should have filed a civil case. Puri has also claimed that he has settled his end of the bargain with distributor Warangal Srinu according to their signed agreement and it is the latter who has defaulted payment to the sub-distributors.
Puri Jagannadh says that he is concerned that now his 85-year-old mother-in-law, his wife and daughter are at the risk of getting harassed because of the situation.
Earlier, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma had posted a WhatsApp screenshot which had a message from the distributors, calling for a protest outside Puri’s home in Hyderabad. He captioned the tweet, “Threatening Msg circulating in Distribution groups about LIGER”
Threatening Msg circulating in Distribution groups about LIGER pic.twitter.com/RkYRYkNrwz
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) October 24, 2022
The message written in Telugu translates into, “A total of 83 distributors were Liger’s victims. We’re going to Puri Jagannadh house on 27th of this month to do dharna. Therefore, each exhibitor should bring clothes for a minimum of 4 days to stay. If no one dares to come forward, then their names will be removed from the list of beneficiaries. You won’t get a call from us if no one comes that day. And no information will be provided. It would be great if everyone could come.”
Liger was released in Hindi and Telugu. It also starred Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishna and Ronit Roy in prominent roles. The film was a co-production between Karan Johar, Puri Jagannadh and Charmee Kaur.
