Did Vivek Agnihotri take a swipe at Prabhas' Salaar teaser?

Hindi filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri on Thursday voiced his criticism of "nonsense action" movies in a series of tweets, taking aim at films that glorify violence. The timing of his remarks coincided with the release of the teaser of Salaar, featuring Telugu superstar Prabhas, leading to speculation that his comments were directed at the film, which is said to be the tale of "the most violent man." 

"People aren’t born violent. Your children’s minds are conditioned by glamourising violence in popular literature, cinema and politics by industry leaders who should be actually inspiring young minds for peace. In such a violent world only solution is #CreativeConsciousness," Vivek tweeted just hours after the release of Salaar teaser. 

Also Read: Here's why Prabhas' Salaar teaser leaves us disappointed

And he doubled down on his comments in further tweets. "Now glamourising extreme violence in cinema is also considered talent. Promoting nonsense cinema is considered a bigger talent. Promoting a non-actor as biggest star is considered biggest talent. And assuming audience is super-dumb is mother of all talent," he added. 

And he also expressed dismay claiming that "nonsense and loud" movies work at the Indian box office. "We have also made such grand films with great engineering and powerful stories. Sholay, for example. But now everyone believes dumbing down the audience, creating marketing hype and nonsense action with loud sound can make a film hit. Looking at Indian BO, it’s true also," he said. 

However, Vivek is completely against action movies as in one of his tweets he praised Hollywood star Tom Cruise starrer Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. Sharing a behind-the-scenes footage of the movie, he wrote, "Extraordinary. Experiment. Innovation. Engineering. Execution. The world of extraordinary action cinema - @MissionFilm I hope someday we build something like this instead of just building a star image." 

Salaar is written and directed by Prashanth Neel, who helmed last year's biggest Kannada hit KGF: Chapter 2. Starring Prabhas, Salaar is expected to repeat the box office success of KGF 2. The teaser is filled with glimpses of established action sequences that received mixed reviews.