Telugu producer Naga Vamsi has been grabbing the eyeballs for all the wrong reasons. Ever since he appeared on a roundtable panel discussion along side ace Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor, his comments about Hindi films being made only to cater to the audiences of Juhu and Bandra neighbourhoods in Mumbai, irked many. His remarks were criticised by filmmakers like Hansal Mehta and Sanjay Gupta.
Now, after facing a lot of backlash for his apparently derogatory comments and allegedly disrespectful behaviour towards Boney Kapoor during the Galatta Plus roundtable with pan-India producers, Naga Vamsi has cleared the air and apologised for the same, calling Karan Johar his inspiration in a recent interview. He also mentioned that post the discussion, he and Boney were on cordial terms.
While speaking to Telugu36, Vamsi said that his comments were not intended to be disrespectful towards anyone, but stemmed from immense pride in the work done by South filmmakers. He told the publication, “If they really believe I disrespected Boney, I am sorry. I never wanted to disrespect anyone, especially Bollywood. As a south Indian, I was just proud of the kind of work we have done post-COVID.”
#Nagavamsi might have listened to twitter spaces and got inspiration from our @CBNArchives bro's babay goddali story 😂😂
— V@ndeM@t@r@m (@patriotatwork99) December 31, 2024
Asala Boni em cheppina divert kavatle 😂pic.twitter.com/856aoK4E9K
The prolific Telugu producer went on to add that he adores some actors from the Hindi Film industry like Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Deepika Padukone. “Karan Johar is my inspiration for coming to films, not any Telugu director. Ever since I watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I knew I wanted to make a rich-looking film like that someday,” he said.
Addressing the issue of him apparently disrespecting Boney Kapoor, Vamsi spoke about how people have been dissecting everything he said and did on the panel, from the way he spoke to his mannerisms. He shared that South filmmakers made some amazing films and he is proud of them being a South Indian himself.
This 60-second clip has shaken the entire Bollywood ecosystem! @vamsi84
— Churchill Aheer (@ChurchillAheer) January 1, 2025
#NagaVamsi #BoneyKapoor #TeluguMovies pic.twitter.com/HE8EcoD37k
“Rajamouli made RRR and Baahubali, Prashanth Neel made KGF, Rishab Shetty made Kantara, Sandeep Reddy Vanga made Animal, Atlee made Jawan. Because south Indians made all these films, as a south Indian talking to someone from the north, I just pointed out how well we performed,” Vamsi told the publication.
He further added, “Boney Kapoor and I were fine after the interview. Now, Pushpa 2 generated records no Hindi film did to date, of course, I will be proud of it. It’s not arrogance.”
During the roundtable discussion, Vamsi had said, “We South Indians have changed the way you look at cinema because you (Bollywood) were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. You witnessed a change with Bahubali, RRR, Animal and Jawan.” However, Boney did not agree with Vamsi at the time and Vamsi ended up facing a lot of flak for his comments and demeanour.