Varun Tej's Korean Kanakaraju runs into controversy over Satya's NTR spoof; fuming fans allege makers ‘planted meme’

A meme that recently went viral on social media found space in Merlapaka Gandhi's Korean Kanakaraju. Here's what it offended NTR fans.

If you’ve been on X (formerly Twitter) lately, it’s likely that you have seen an old scene from a Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) movie going viral and being turned into a meme. Merlapaka Gandhi’s Friday release, Korean Kanakaraju, oddly features a scene where Satya’s character spoofs it. Varun Tej’s film has since offended NTR fans, who allege that the makers ‘planted the meme’.

Varun Tej's horror comedy Korean Kanakaraju featured a scene spoofing NTR's dialogue.

The NTR meme that recently surfaced

In the 1978 hit Yuga Purushudu, NTR’s character Rajesh faces off against Chandra Mohan’s Anand in a scene. Rajesh asks Anand after he throws a punch, “Mister, mee stroke chala amateurish ga undi. Idivaraku eppudaina fight chesara? (Mister, your stroke is very amateurish. Have you ever fought before?)” When Anand says he hasn't, Rajesh asks whether it’s due to a lack of opportunity. But he haughtily replies, “No, it’s due to lack of necessity.”

Satya spoofs the dialogue in Korean Kanakaraju

Days after this scene went viral as a meme, Satya’s character Kishtappa spoofed it in Korean Kanakaraju. He’s beaten up constantly in a scene, and once he gets some relief, he jokes, “Veedi strokes chala immaturish ga unai. (His strokes are so immature).” He even mimics NTR’s famous gestures in the scene, which is played for gags. The scene has now left NTR fans fuming as clips of the joke circulated on X.

NTR fans allege meme was ‘planted’ on purpose

While the old NTR scene being used as a meme isn’t new, many have questioned it resurfacing in the last week. “Sr NTR meme reference 1 year back trend ayyindi. Ee madya 1 week nundi malli trend avutundi. Antha sudden ga cinema lo scene add cheyyadam kastam so munde scene petti theatre lo click avvali ani social media lo ruddadam start chesaru. (Sr NTR’s scene became a meme a year ago and resurfaced last week. To add a referential scene in the movie is difficult, so they trended it on social media on purpose),” theorised one fan.

“It would have been better if the director had thought twice before including something that mocks Anna garu's dialogue from the movie Korean Kanakaraaju. Putting content in the movie that has already gone viral on social media is one thing. But showing a scene from an old movie—especially from Anna garu's industry-hit film—in this way is deplorable,” wrote a fan, adding, “Satya garu, you're great at creating humour, but doing it at Anna garu's expense like this is very wrong. I request the film's producer and the hero-director to remove this scene immediately.”

“Actually ee matter ni sportive ga thiskoni lyt thisukunevadni (I would’ve taken this sportively)... Bt the way how these guys put this scene in the movie and later conveniently planned to troll Sr NTR before 3-4 days of Movie release date. Worst to the core,” wrote one hurt fan. Others also left comments like, “So they planted NTR meme on purpose,” and “So actually idantha PR plan aa to make viral?? (So this was all a PR plan to make it viral?)” Some, however, reasoned that the scene wasn’t offensive, remarking, “Am I missing somthing here? Isn’t the scene just recreation of the old one? At first glance, I didn’t see any troll on Sr.NTR.”

Korean Kanakaraju stars Varun Tej, Ritika Nayak, Daksha Nagarkar and Satya in lead roles. It was released in theatres on August 7.