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Rajinikanth's manager fires shots at director for calling Billa a flop film: ‘Ensure accuracy in your statements’

Jan 16, 2025 03:39 PM IST

Vishnuvardhan said in a recent interview that the 1980 Rajinikanth-starrer Billa did not work at the box office, only to be corrected by the actor's team.

Rajinikanth was facing a slump in his career, yet to make it to the big leagues, when he starred in R Krishnamoorthy’s 1980 film Billa, a remake of the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Don. The film, which gave him his biggest commercial success at that point was called a flop by director Vishnuvardhan in a recent interview. Rajinikanth’s manager corrected the director, asking him to fact-check his statements. (Also Read: Jailer 2 teaser: Rajinikanth packs a punch as he returns as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian in Nelson's action-packed sequel)

Rajinikanth in a still from R Krishnamoorthy's 1980 film Billa.
Rajinikanth in a still from R Krishnamoorthy's 1980 film Billa.

What Vishnuvardhan said

In an interview with SS Music, Vishnuvardhan, who helmed the 2021 Hindi film Shershaah, said, “To tell you the truth, Billa didn't run well at that time. I thought, what are we going to do? What do I like about the film? I liked that they had a dark character as the lead at that time and I thought, that is a great idea.” The director said this while explaining why he had remade the 1980 film in 2007 with the same title and Ajith Kumar in the lead role.

How Rajinikanth’s manager reacted

This did not go down well with Rajinikanth’s PR manager, Riaz Ahmed. He re-posted the clip on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Dear @vishnu_dir sir, I would like to politely bring to your attention that the 1980 release #Billa was a Silver Jubilee Hit . You may kindly confirm this with the producer of the original version, Mr. Suresh Balaji. I humbly request you to ensure accuracy in your statements to avoid sharing incorrect information. #RajjniBillaBlockbuster #ThalaivarNirandharam.” In a separate post, he also asked journalists to fact-check and ‘maintain the highest standards of journalism’.

Upcoming work

Vishnuvardhan recently helmed Nesippaya, which starred Aditi Shankar, R Sarathkumar, Prabhu, and Khushbu Sundar in lead roles. It was released in theatres on January 14. Rajinikanth will soon star in Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie and Nelson Dilipkumar’s Jailer 2, which was officially announced on Pongal. He was last seen in TJ Gnanavel’s 2024 cop drama Vettaiyan, in which Amitabh also plays a key role.

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