On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned producer Charmme Kaur and director Puri Jagannadh regarding the finances of their most recent movie, Liger starring Vijay Devarakonda and Ananya Panday. According to reports, the ED summoned Puri and Charmme to inquire about further concerns regarding the funding for the movie.
Numerous media sources state that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is concentrating on the movie’s financial trail in light of possible Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) breaches. One of the most eagerly awaited movies of 2022, Liger, starring Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday, failed to connect with fans and performed terribly at the box office.
Following reports that money used to fund #VijayDeverakonda & #AnanyaPanday‘s film #Liger came from a foreign source, which is a clear violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) of 1999, ED summoned #PuriJagannadh, #Charmme to confirm the identity of their investors. pic.twitter.com/ATB0HwvAWX
— FilmiBeat (@filmibeat) November 19, 2022
Congress leader Bakka Judson complained in August that politicians had invested money in Liger to turn their illegal funds into legitimate funds. Sleuths from ED started an investigation after receiving the complaint. According to reports, Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur, the makers of Liger, were called by the ED 15 days ago. They appeared before the ED on November 17 and were questioned for around 12 hours.
On August 25, 2022, the movie Liger, starring Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishnan, and Mike Tyson in significant roles, was released in theatres. The multilingual movie tanked at the box office. To promote the Hindi version of the film, Karan Johar was engaged.
Boycott calls for its association with Karan Johar
Notably, prior to its release, Liger had also faced tremendous boycott calls by Netizens. The internet community had called for the Telugu movie “Liger” to be boycotted for a number of reasons, but mostly because Karan Johar is involved with it. The trend started after Vijay supported actor Aamir Khan and his latest box office failure, Laal Singh Chaddha.
In an interview with India Today, Vijay stated, “When you decide to boycott a film, you are not only affecting Aamir Khan, you are affecting thousands of families who lose work and livelihoods. Aamir Sir is someone who pulls the crowd to the theatres. I am not sure why this boycott call is happening, but for whatever misunderstanding, this is happening, please realise you are not affecting Aamir Khan alone but the economy.” Vijay Devakonda starred in the movie ‘Arjun Reddy’ which was later made into Hindi as ‘Kabir Singh.’
