Vijay Deverakonda: Anand and I would prank girlfriends because we have the same voice

Vijay Deverakonda joined his brother Anand Deverakonda’s press meet virtually to address claims that he was apeing his voice and diction.

Ever since Anand Deverakonda debuted in 2019 with Dorasaani, he has often been compared to his brother, actor Vijay Deverakonda. Recently, when Anand was asked if he was apeing his brother’s voice and diction on purpose at a press meet, while promoting his upcoming film Gam Gam Ganesha, Vijay joined in virtually to clarify the same. (Also Read: Anand Deverakonda on 18 years of Pokiri: ‘I would mimic Mahesh Babu’s running style in school’)

Vijay Deverakonda and Anand Deverakonda's voices have often been compared.

‘We used to prank girlfriends’

After trying to state that he and his brother have always had similar voices and that he wasn’t doing it on purpose, Anand got Vijay on call to join in the conversation. Vijay said, “The day our mother couldn’t differentiate who was calling out for her was when we realised we had similar voices. We later used it to our advantage and would prank our girlfriends and friends. Anand would often pretend to be me while talking to others. We thought getting him to dub for some scenes in one of my films would be a great idea.” Anand chimed in and said that he did dub for his brother once, making fans curious about which film they were talking about.

‘We have forgotten to celebrate cinema’

At the press meet, Anand was also candid about how comparison has been killing good cinema in Tollywood lately. He said, “This new culture in the film industry is negative. Competition is something positive; it helps us to better ourselves and makes us want to make better films. But it turns into a negative when every actor is compared with others and talked about for their looks and the numbers their movies are making. Even the audience is somehow engrossed in talking about how much their favourite actor made at the box office. Because of that comparison, we have forgotten to celebrate cinema.”

Upcoming work

Directed by Uday Shetty, Gam Gam Ganesha stars Anand and Pragathi Srivastava in the lead roles. The film will be released in theatres on May 31. He’s also shooting a film called Duet. Vijay has three movies with Gowtam Tinnanuri, Rahul Sankrityan and Ravi Kiran Kola.