Hindi audiences were showing love for my films on OTT which haven’t worked in my own language, says Vijay Deverakonda

Vijay Deverakonda, who rose to stardom with Arjun Reddy (2017) and Geetha Govindam (2018), is now set to make his Hindi film debut with the bilingual Liger (2022), directed by Puri Jagannadh.

At a trailer launch event held for the film in Mumbai on 21 July, Deverakonda was asked about his decision to act in Liger and how the lines between South and North cinema are blurring. The actor replied, “I saw the audience was giving me a lot of love for [my] films in Telugu. They were watching Arjun Reddy on Amazon Prime Video and showing love. People have been watching the Hindi dubbed version of Dear Comrade (2019) on YouTube."

"People were showing love for some films of mine which haven’t worked in my own language. So, I thought it’s about time I do something in their language. You need to take ten steps ahead towards them now when they are showing so much love,” he added.

Deverakonda's first look poster for Liger where the actor bared it all got a lot of attention and love from fans across social media. The actor was quizzed about his fitness training for the film. He shared, “When I heard the script, I knew that if I do this film then I need to get this body. The lockdown helped since I got time to train and get this body. We had terrific stunt choreographers who trained me from Thailand.”

Liger, which also stars Ananya Panday and American boxer Mike Tyson, is due to be released theatrically on 25 August.