Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday's film ‘Liger,’ which was anticipated to do well at the box office, has failed to live up to expectations. The Puri Jagannath directorial opened to poor reviews and crashed miserably at the box office.
Liger has received thumbs down from both the audience and critics alike, and the movie could be pulled out of cinema halls soon. Liger has earned around Rs 41 crore, including collections from all languages, at the domestic box office till now.
To compensate for Liger’s box-office performance, Deverakonda has planned to return a large amount of his remuneration to the producers. The actor is likely to return over Rs 6 crore to the producers to reduce the burden of losses, according to News18.
Backed by Karan Johar-led Dharma Productions and Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur's banner Puri Connects, Liger released in theatres in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. The film also marks the Bollywood debut of Deverakonda and is made on a budget of about Rs 100 crore.
The Arjun Reddy actor had reportedly charged Rs 20 crore to star in the film. Liger was released on the big screens on 25th August. The film also stars Ramya Krishna and Ronit Roy.
The film managed to rake in Rs 33 crore globally on its opening day. However, since Day 2, the movie has been seen a huge drop in its box office collections. The total worldwide collection of the film is expected to be around Rs 67 crore gross worldwide and Rs 18.7 crore nett for the Hindi version.
Bollywood critic Taran Adarsh called the movie “OUTDATED” and had given Liger a rating of one and a half stars. Adarsh, in a tweet, said: “#Liger fails to meet the expectations... An absolute waste of talent, resources and opportunity... #VijayDeverakonda deserved a better launch in #Hindi movies... This #Liger just doesn't roar! #LigerReview”
In addition to this, Puri Jagannath and Deverakonda’s next movie ‘Jana Gana Mana’ is also in deep waters. As per the reports, the film has officially been scrapped after the actor had backed out of the project owing to Liger’s failure.
‘Arjun Reddy’ star Vijay Deverakonda plays the role of the titular MMA fighter alongside the movie’s lead actress Ananya Panday. American boxing icon Mike Tyson also plays an extended cameo in the movie.