Liger Box Office: After Aamir Khan, Puri Jagannadh to compensate distributors from South

The masala sports drama, which was dubbed in five lanugaes, has managed to amass only 46 crore INR since its release, according to a report by Mashable India. Vijay Deverakonda being an established star down South, the movie was naturally expected to do better in the Southern belt. But, the truth is, Liger has tanked pan-India. 

As per Bollywood Hungama, Liger may get ripped out of theratres within the first four days of its release. Reportedly, over 90% of shows in South Indian states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have been cancelled after a drop in footfall on Monday. Further reports suggest that two other Southern states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, are also expected to cancel the film's shows in their theatres as well.

According to a news report by AndhraBoxOffice.com, the sports drama made a mere 24.5 crore INR worldwide on its first day, with the Telugu version of the film earning around 15 crore INR and the highly publicised Hindi version opening to a lukewarm repsonse of 5 crore INR in collections. 

And now, distributors attached to the project are asking for their money back.

In an exclusive news piece by ETimes, Warangal Srinu, a distributor from South India, told the entertainment portal that he has "lost everything". 

"I have lost something to the tune of 65 per cent of my investment," Srinu told ETimes. 

According to the same news report, the film's director-producer Puri Jagannadh has made the decision to compensate its distributors who have suffered greatly due to the movie not working well pan-India. He is reportedly flying off to Hyderabad to meet the distributors compensate them soon. Srinu confirmed the news to ETimes that that Puri Jagannadh has taken this matter into his own hands. 

"Do we realise that in our quest of banning actors and filmmakers, based on preconceived notions, we are ruining poor families of poor crew members. The movies will decrease and lead to chaos in several families who depend on it for their daily meal. The movie industry is going through a very bad phase and social media users who are members of the unjustified ban culture that has come to dominate, should be ignored. There seems to be a concerted campaign against us, almost every day. This is totally uncalled for. See the film and if you don't like it, thrash it. But how can you thrash it before it has been released and you haven't seen it?" Srinu told ETimes. 

Interestingly, reports of Aamir Khan compensating his film Laala Singh Chaddha's distributors were circulating in the recent past, and now we have learnt that the superstar has waived off his own fee as the leading man to make up for 100 crore INR in losses, according to a report by Bollywood Hungama.