As Rajnikanth-starrer Vettaiyan hit the screens on Thursday, several Telugu cinegoers took to social media platforms such as ‘X’ and Facebook, criticising the makers for retaining the Tamil title for the Telugu version of the film.
Citing the examples of Thangalan, Vettaiyan and Kanguva, they criticised the filmmakers for sticking to the original Tamil titles for the dubbed versions too.
“After the movie Basha, Rajinikanth achieved a market in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that rivalled the popularity of Telugu heroes’ films. Therefore, when releasing a dubbed version of his film in Telugu, it’s unacceptable to retain the original Tamil title,” Gautam Ravuri, a film critic, said in a Facebook post. His is not an isolated opinion. Several others too echoed his views on the topic.
“Please tell us the meaning of Vettaiyan in Telugu! You are releasing the Telugu version with a Tamil title. Isn’t this an my imposition of Tamil on us? We know how your industry and audience would react if a Hindi film’s dubbed version was released in Tamil Nadu with a Hindi title,” another handle said on ‘X’. “Though I’m an ardent fan of Superstar Rajnikanth, I will not watch this film for insulting the Telugu people,” he said.
Clarification issued
With the voices getting stronger threatening to adversely impact the openings of Vettaiyan (which means hunter), LycaProductions, which produced the film, and Dil Raju, who is distributing the film in Telugu, came out with a clarification.
“We did attempt to name the film as Vettagadu. But due to the unavailability of the title and to also to capture the core meaning of the film, we were compelled to name the film with a uniform title Vettaiyan-The Hunter for all the dubbed versions ofthe film to ensure consistency,” a spokesperson of Lyca Productions said.