Ever since Vignesh Shivan penned a post on his latest film Love Insurance Kompany's box-office failure, the filmmaker has been receiving major backlash on social media with many criticising him for shifting the blame on audiences and reviewers for their "negative reviews".
On Sunday, the Naanum Rowdy Dhaan director took to his Instagram stories to write how he has been receiving a lot of positive messages about the film after watching the romantic entertainer on OTT platforms. He wrote, "Many people have messaged me saying they missed the film in theatres because of the overwhelming negativity they saw online."
He criticised the reviewers, saying that the reviews were "written to showcase intelligence or superiority, often to more than critique a film." - He further said that they can discourage audiences from giving the movie a chance and "crush the dreams of ambitious filmmakers."
"You are making movies for the Tamil audience. If you serve something they do not want, you cannot blame them for not liking the food," wrote one user. Another X user said, "Ambition deserves credit. But ambition alone doesn't buy a ticket." Many asked him to take "accountability" for his LIK's debacle and accept the flaws in the film. They underlined the power of word-of-mouth reviews and asked him to make films for the discerning audiences irrespective of the stars in the cast.
A few weeks ago, Vignesh wrote another post in which he expressed disappointment for the film not hitting the Rs 100 crore mark. "I imagined applause… I saw it in the theatres. I manifested laughter - I heard it in the theatres. But still the benchmark of 100 crores wasn’t touched! I was imagining double of that to be honest. But still somewhere, something doesn’t tally! Something didn’t land!"
Set in 2040, LIK revolves around Suriyan's (SJ Suryah) eponymous app that monitors the love lives of couples and helps them insure their relationships. When his new app feature 'love score' hints at a failure in his relationship with Dheema (Krithi Shetty), Pradeep Ranganathan's Vibe Vassey is determined to prove it wrong and thwart the plans of Suriyan.
Besides Pradeep, Krithi Shetty, and SJ Suryah also star in lead roles in LIK. Gouri Kishan, Yogi Babu, Seeman, Shah Ra, Malavika, Mysskin, Anandaraj and Sunil Reddy, among others play supporting roles.