Producer Nag Vamsi Says ‘Lokah' Would Have 'Flopped If It Were Made In Telugu'
Vamsi had distributed the film in the two Telugu-speaking states.
Producer and distributor Nag Vamsi spoke at length about the Telugu audience and how they prefer a totally different kind of cinema when a film is being made in their language. In an interview with Gulte, Vamsi, who had recently distributed Malayalam blockbuster Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, said that the Telugu audience would have rejected the film if it had originally been made in Telugu. He went on to add that the audiences of the two Telugu-speaking states would have complained about the film’s length, terming it as ‘lag’, resulting in its failure.
“I will change my name if they don't do that,” he said, sure of the nature of his audience. Vamsi was promoting Telugu star Ravi Teja’s upcoming film Mass Jathara, and the star too was seen agreeing with Nag Vamsi’s point about the local audience.
In the same series of interviews, he also spoke about how this audience reacted to War 2, starring Jr NTR. He is quoted to have said, “Mistakes happen. Everyone makes mistakes. Aditya Chopra is the biggest producer in Indian cinema. NTR and I trusted YRF blindly, but it misfired. The mistake is on their side, but we faced the heat.”
Seeing this clip about the Telugu audience, Tamil movie producer and distributor G Dhananjayan re-iterated the point, adding that it would have been the same with Tamil audiences. He wrote on X, “Same is true for Tamil Cinema too. Had #Lokah been made in Tamil, same kind of feedback would have come like #NagVamsi garu says. We have different views for each language film.”
As for Malayalam, Lokah has emerged as the highest-grossing film of all time in the State, having crossed ₹300 crore, a first for the industry. The record also makes Malayalam the only major mainstream movie industry in India to have a female-led film as its highest grosser. This is also a year in which Malayalam saw an unprecedented three films crossing the ₹200 crore mark, with L2: Empuraan, Thudarum (both starring Mohanlal) and, now, Lokah Chapter One: Chandra.