Vijay Deverakonda did Hindi film after mocking the language: Malobika Banerjee

Vijay Deverakonda had compared Hindi to Hebrew, Malobika Banerjee said in a new interview. The Bengali actor-singer had worked with Vijay years before he acted in Liger, which was billed as Vijay’s Bollywood debut.

Malobika Banerjee recalled an incident with Vijay Deverakonda, when they shot for the music video Nee Venakale Nadichi some years ago. The Bengali actor-singer said when they filmed the video, Vijay was had become quite popular after his hit film Arjun Reddy (2017). While calling him a ‘very professional actor and good at his work’, Malobika said Vijay had told her he did not understand Hindi and had started speaking in Telugu on the set.

Vijay Deverakonda mocked Hindi, when they worked together, Malobika Banerjee said in an interview.

In a new interview, Malobika said she was surprised to see the teaser of Vijay’s first Hindi film Liger, which was released in August, after the actor had laughed at her and mocked her for speaking in Hindi, while they shot together. She recalled Vijay telling her that Hindi ‘is like Hebrew’.

“When he was shooting with me, he didn’t know how to speak Hindi and I prefer to speak in that language mostly while working. So, I was trying to communicate with Vijay in Hindi while shooting and he was laughing and mocking me saying that he doesn’t understand the language and it is like Hebrew. He started talking in Telugu in front of me. Then I saw Liger’s teaser and I was surprised that after mocking the language, he is doing a film in Hindi! (laughs) Having said that, he is a nice person and very professional,” Malobika told News 18.

The actor-singer also spoke about wanting to tell people how Vijay ‘was mocking Hindi’ before doing a Hindi film like Liger. Revealing what stopped her from doing so, Malobika said in the same interview, “When the promotions of the film were going on, I wanted to tell people about how he was mocking Hindi and now is doing a Hindi film but he is my good friend so I didn’t do it. But I messaged him saying ‘Welcome to Bollywood’ and also shared the poster of Liger. Then I found out that he really doesn’t have that many Hindi dialogues in the film.”

Liger, billed as Vijay’s Bollywood debut and a pan-India film, was released in August-end amid much hype. The film, also starring Ananya Panday and Ramya Krishnan, failed at the box office. Directed by filmmaker Puri Jaggannath, the film was backed by Karan Johar.