Dinesh Vijan Hits Back At Producer Naga Vamsi's 'Bandra-Juhu' Jibe, Says 'Maybe We Don’t Speak A Lot But...'

Seems like debate of North vs South films is never going to die. Recently, producers Boney Kapoor and Naga Vamsi recently engaged in a war of words over the long-standing debate Bollywood vs South Films. During the trailer launch event of Akshay Kumar starrer Sky Force, Dinesh Vijan disagreed the remarks of Naga Vamsi and has countered back.

What did Dinesh Vijan say during the launch event?

The war of words occurred after a a recent roundtable interview, Lucky Baskhar's producer argued that South films such as Baahubali and RRR, reshaped Hindi cinema's approach to mass entertainment. This didn't go down well with Kapoor and he disagreed by pointing out the impact of Bollywood across the globe. The Maidaan producer even pointed out that Pushpa 2 actor Allu Arjun, in an interview, shared that he is a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan. Vamsi had also claimed, “Bollywood makes films only for Bandra and Juhu."

When Dinesh Vijan was asked about his opinion in regard to this, he replied, “Maybe we don’t speak a lot about ourselves, but the fact is we’ve had five huge films, and just Maddock Films, just Jio Films are not enough to run the industry. Whenever I have gone to the South, they’ve been very, very encouraging." Dinesh Vijan further said, ““If we start looking at it as the Indian film industry, it would be 500+800=1300 (crore).” Akshay Kumar to agreed to him.

When Naga Vamsi made big claims

Naga Vamsi had stated during the roundtable interview of Galatta Plus that it was South Indians who changed the way you look at cinema. "This might sound harsh, but we South Indians have changed the way you look at cinema — even for Bollywood." He explained his statement, "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. After Mughal-E-Azam, you mentioned films like Baahubali and RRR, which were Telugu films. You never really spoke of a Hindi film’s name after Mughal-E-Azam."

On hearing this, Boney Kapoor explained that he can't discuss every bit of knowledge at this forum and has to speak in broader terms. So, when I mention Mughal-E-Azam, Baahubali, and all, it’s not that I missed out on those films. I’m aware of them. But it’s not as though Telugu films have taught Indian cinema…" However, Vamsi interrupted him by saying, “Not taught, sir. We just rediscovered Hindi cinema because of these mass, huge event films.”

Reacting to the producer Naga Vamsi’s remarks, Hansal Mehta in an X post said: "Since this person Mr Naga Vamsi was being so arrogant and now that I know who he is: His latest hit as a producer Lucky Bhaskar has borrowed liberally from the Scam series." The director said he was "happy" that the story of a Hindi series like "Scam" was translated successfully in another language. "Reason I brought this up is that I feel happy that stories travel and a film in another language succeeds in replicating what has worked for us. Everybody wins. Nobody is bigger than the other. That narrative is destructive. Arrogance is even worse," he added in his post.