Bollywood needs another hit badly after Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Liger is likely to fill that yawning vacuum. Of late, films coming out of the Bollywood dream factory have established an instant yawn-sambandh with the audience.
Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday’s Liger is all set for a release on August 25 in multiple languages. It’s being hailed as the next Pan-India offering. Here are 7 reasons why it could set the cash-registers ringing at the box-office:
1. Vijay Deverakonda spins into action with a dizzying force. We have seen many action heroes in the past. But none like this. The boxing bouts and the street fights have been uniquely choreographed. The fights were treated like choreographic pieces as we have seen the action unfold in the past in the Bruce Lee martial arts films. This is action as a discipline, not diversion.
2. The action sequences do not function in isolation. They are designed as set pieces but they flow organically from the story, like uncapped toothpaste—from the tube to the user’s mouth. The relationship between the stuttering, seething, scrimmaging fighter and the audience is immediately established. The rest is his story. Raw and unplugged.
3. Bollywood needs another hit badly after Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Liger is likely to fill that yawning vacuum. Of late, films coming out of the Bollywood dream factory have established an instant yawn-sambandh with the audience. There is nothing to yawn about in Liger. Massively fast-paced and relentless in its pursuit of cardinal pleasures, Liger doesn’t give the audience a chance to breathe.
4. Telugu cinema has lately been going through a huge revival . Within a month, the industry has had two back-to-back bumper hits: Hanu Raghavapudi’s Sita Ramam and Chandoo Mondeti’s Karthikeya 2, which is now being touted as The Kashmir Files of the South. Karthikeya 2 has a minuscule role for our own Anupam Kher and he feels Kartik Aaryan and he are the only superstars of Bollywood. That’s about to change. Bollywood, please make space for Vijay Deverakonda. If you don’t, he will.
5. The Hindi-Telugu bilingual Liger is expected to rake in around 18 crores on day 1 in Telugu. Vijay has a huge fan-base in Andhra Pradesh. They are eager to see what he has done in his Bollywood debut. So are we. Karan Johar intends to flood the theatres in the North Indian belt with the Hindi version of Liger. More than 1800 screens will by occupied by Liger from August 25 in Hindi alone. Plus, 600 screens in the South. Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions has not seen a release on this scale since Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
6. The Ananya factor is vital to the South market. In Telugu cinema, they welcome Bollywood actresses- Tamannaah Bhatia, Pooja Hegde and Rakul Preet Singh have all been welcomed in the Telugu film industry with open arms and hefty paychecks. The most recent entrant to the Telugu haul of fame is Mrunal Thakur. Ananya Panday in Liger is expected to be The Next Big Thing from Bollywood in Telugu cinema.
7. There has been no significant pugilist film in India, certainly none featuring Mike Tyson in the cast. Tyson, who has been dabbling in acting lately, is the bandmuthi (the secret USP) of Liger. His fight with Vijay Deverakonda will leave the popcorn tubs untouched in the climax of the film.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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