Producer-turned-distributor Abhishek Nama, whose tweet that Vijay Deverakonda’s World Famous Lover released a couple of years ago had lost him Rs 8 crore has gone viral, has clarified that he didn’t ask for money from the young actor. “I wanted him to do a film for us as we lost 80% of our money in distributing World Famous Lover, but hasn’t responded for 3 years,” says Abhishek. He also admitted that he was irked by Vijay’s announcement of Rs 1 crore compensation for 100 families when he had a lot of commitments to the film industry itself.
He answers a few questions:
Why are you asking Vijay Devarakonda rather than producer KS Rama Rao for money to offset in the World Famous Lover losses?
I am not asking for even a rupee from Vijay Devarakonda since he’s not the producer of World Famous Lover. K S Rama Rao was in dire straits after making the film and even pledged properties to clear the pending remuneration to Vijay Devarakonda, who was unwilling to promote the film.
When he received the payment, he attended just one event at Vizag and one at Hyderabad, unlike now when he is doing extensive promotions for Khushi. When he announced Rs 1 lakh each for 100 families, we reminded him about the losses we incurred by distributing World Famous Lover since it was Rs 8 crore!
Did Vijay Devarakonda promise to do a film for Abhishek Pictures?
World Famous Lover ran into a lot of problems and the release was doubtful since producer K S Rama Roa was in a financial mess. Vijay’s manager Anurag then approached me and Nizam distributor Sunil Narang to connect them to financiers and the film was released. He also assured us that Vijay would do a film for us once World Famous Lover hit theatres, but it bombed at the box office.
Did you approach Vijay for a film?
Sunil Narang and I went to Vijay’s house and we were asked to meet his father and manager. When we put forward the proposal to make a film with him, his manager said that he was now a pan-India star and worked only with filmmakers like Karan Johar. He asked us to bring a top director like Sanjay Leela Bhansali or Trivikram Srinivas to discuss the project, but we said that would be difficult. Even today, we are ready to pay him his market price to make a film and recover our huge losses. We are not asking for any money or compensation, but only seeking his dates as both of us distributors have lost Rs 12 to Rs 13 crores combined.
Is his latest release Kushi losing steam?
The collections are dropping drastically and it will not to be a profit-making venture for sure. His films are over-hyped, while box office figures are inflated to project fake collections. His market is dwindling and he has to understand this.
