Pathaan director Siddharth Anand has become the latest celebrity to comment on the Naga Vamsi and Boney Kapoor controversy, videos of which are going viral on social media.
Recently, filmmaker Hansal Mehta had shared a clip of Naga stating that the “whole of Mumbai didn't sleep after Pushpa 2 earned over Rs 80 crore in a single day" and commented on it, "Chill dude whoever you are… I live in Mumbai. Been sleeping really well." Siddarth cheekily commented on it and wrote, “Mumbai has always been the city that never sleeps ;) It’s ok, I guess some people don’t know our real Mumbai!”
In another post, making a sly dig on Naga over his comments that Hindi filmmakers have only been making films for “Bandra and Juhu”, the Fighter director added, “And one more thing. I have infact lived ONLY in Bandra and Juhu both! Just fyi.”
To give context, at this year’s Galatta Plus Producers Roundtable, Boney was talking about how southern films have different sort of markets overseas. While making his point he said, “For instance, Telugu films have a unique market in the US, while Tamil films have a strong presence in Singapore and Malaysia…And the Gulf, of course, is a cosmopolitan area.” To this, Naga replied, “No, the Gulf has a huge market for Malayalam films.”
Boney then went on to explain and stated that when he says “cosmopolitan” he includes Malayalam films, but Naga went on to make the point that South films like RRR and Baahubali have reshaped how Bollywood looks at cinema. “One thing, sir, you have to accept this. It might sound really harsh. We, South Indians, have changed the way you [Bollywood] look at cinema. Because, you guys [Bollywood], were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. You witnessed a change with Baahubali, RRR, Animal and Jawan. 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,” said Naga.
