South filmmaker Naga Vamsi has apologised to veteran Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor after receiving backlash on social media for allegedly ‘disrespecting’ him during a debate about Bollywood and South Cinema in a roundtable discussion. He has now clarified that disrespecting Kapoor was not his intention.
After praising the South film industry, he revealed in one of his recent interviews that filmmaker Karan Johar is his inspiration.
During an interaction with Telugu360, Naga Vamsi reacted to the hate he received for his comments. He said, “If they 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.”
“Karan Johar is my inspiration for coming into films, not any other Telugu director. Ever since I watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, I knew I wanted to make a rich-looking film like that someday,” he added.
Naga Vamsi reportedly stated that he is a fan of Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. He also addressed how netizens criticised everything about him, from his posture to his way of speaking, during the roundtable interview. Despite the scrutiny, he stated that both he and Kapoor were on good terms after the interview.
A few days back, Naga Vamsi took to his official X account and wrote, “You don’t need to teach us how to respect elders, we respect boney ji more than u guys do and there was no disrespect towards boney ji in that conversation it was a healthy discussion, me and boney ji had a nice laugh and hugged each other after the interview… So please don’t come to your conclusions with just what you saw.”
What did Naga Vamsi say during the roundtable?
Naga Vamsi appeared at the producers’ roundtable by Galatta Plus, where he told Kapoor, “One thing, sir, you have to accept this. It might sound really harsh. We, South Indians, have changed the way you [Bollywood] look at cinema. Because, you guys [Bollywood], were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. You witnessed a change with Baahubali, RRR, Animal and Jawan.”
Boney shook his head and said that he was “wrong there”. He added, “When I say Mughal-E-Azam, Baahubali and all that, it’s not that I’ve missed out on other films. I know those films. At the tip of my fingers, I can rattle out those names. But, it’s nothing like Telugu cinema has taught Indians. I don’t believe that. It was always there. Even the hero (Allu Arjun) of Pushpa 2 said that he is a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He could have said that he was a big fan of NT Rama Rao.”
