Producer Naga Vamsi was the distributor of Ayan Mukerji’s Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR-starrer War 2 in Telugu this August. He hyped up the film at a pre-release event held in Hyderabad to celebrate NTR’s debut in Bollywood.
Amid rumours of investing ₹100 crore and facing huge losses after the film’s failure, Vamsi broke his silence in an interview with Great Andhra.
Naga Vamsi on War 2 losses
Ever since War 2 released in theatres on August 14 and collected ₹56.74 crore in Telugu in India from the ₹236.55 crore net total, there has been talk of Vamsi incurring ‘huge losses’. Some also believed that he had invested around ₹100 crore and was struggling to find a footing after the losses.
Vamsi broke his silence about it and said, “Everyone on Twitter keeps speculating how much loss I’ve faced with War 2. I bought it for ₹68 crore. It brought me a share of ₹35-40 crore. Yash Raj Films called me to refund ₹18 crore. I had already put forth this condition beforehand. Despite being a Bombay-based company and a corporate production house, they stuck to their word and returned this amount. So, I hardly faced any losses here.”
What Naga Vamsi said about War 2 in the past
Ahead of War 2’s release, when the pre-release event was held in Hyderabad, Vamsi told Jr NTR’s fans that they needed to ensure the film collected more in Telugu than in Hindi. “Our net in Telugu needs to be bigger than the net in Hindi, and it needs to be ten times bigger opening of Devara. Anna raised his collar for us today, and we need to ensure he can do the same all over India. If you watch this film and don’t come out satisfied, I’ll never ask you to watch my films again,” claimed the producer in a passionate speech.
While promoting Mass Jathara with Ravi Teja in October, Vamsi seemed humbled by War 2’s result. Ravi pulled his leg in an interview with Indiaglitz, saying “Baga excite ayavu (You got too excited),” and claiming his speech felt more like a warning than a request. Vamsi agreed and said, “I am only human, I made a mistake. Whether it was me or Jr NTR, we trusted Aditya Chopra and Yash Raj Films. They are one of the biggest producers, and it misfired. They made a mistake, but we’re the ones paying for it. At least it’s not a film we made.”
War 2 was released amid high expectations but received lukewarm reviews. It collected ₹364.35 crore worldwide.