Liger villain Vish on the north v/s south debate: Baahubali opened the gates for all the south actors and filmmakers

Liger is a rather unique name for a film. So is Vish. He’s Vishnu Reddy but prefers to be addressed as Vish. He’s the man who’s Vijay Deverakonda’s nemesis in the film, well, it could be the other way round as well. In an interview with Firstpost, he chats about the unusual moniker, prepping for his role, and weighs on the north v/s south debate that has overtaken social media and people’s perceptions.

Liger is a very unique name, what was your first reaction when you heard the title?

Before Liger, we had Fighter as the working title but being a Pan-India film, we needed one title for all the languages. All of us did a brainstorming session for a week or ten days and then Puri sir came up with this title, which I understood since I love animals. But I asked him if a common man would be able to understand this and that’s when we came up with this idea of a half lion photo and a half tiger photo. This was the way in which people could understand the name and Puri sir is known for his catchy titles. That’s why we put a tag- Saala Crossbreed. I think that worked wonders for us and everything was so positive about the title.

How did you prepare for this character that you play in the film?

I’ve been training for marital arts for the last seven years so I guess destiny was leading me to this baddy character of Liger. It’s a dream for me to play a marital arts champion after training for marital arts for so many years. As a performer too, I wanted to look unique, I wanted to look like a fighter, I did my own styling for the look, the hair, the beard, the cut on the eyebrow. I did a lot of homework and I’m someone that believes in method acting. People who have seen the film are appreciating my work and I’m thankful to them.

How was Vijay Deverakonda as a co-star and your nemesis in the film?

Vijay is an amazing actor, a very confident and honest actor. When I was acting with Vijay, it was so helpful because when two actors are performing with 200 vaults of energy, the scene obviously turns out to be very good. That’s what happened in Liger so it was great working with Vijay and sharing screen space with him.

How do you see your journey as an actor from your first film Josh till now?

It’s been a long journey, lots of twists and turns, a roller-coaster ride but everything was happening for one reason and that was for my own good. I have no regrets.

How would you define the term Pan-India since we are using this term a lot these days?

It’s a new trendy word. But this term was always there, we were always making Pan-India films. Mani Ratnam’s films like Roja and Bombay were all Pan-India. People were always watching films of the South and a lot of actors from the South were coming and acting in Hindi films like Rajinikanth sir, Chiranjeevi sir, Venkatesh sir has come, Nagarjuna sir has done. The give and take was always there, it was always healthy. But I’m happy that all the actors are getting a lot of work and appreciation all over the globe. Business wise also, the numbers are massive, the scale is big and everyone wants to make larger-than-life films.

Has the southern film industry overtaken Hindi cinema over the last few years?

I’m someone who doesn’t believe in that. Nobody is going to overtake anybody. The audiences are very smart and sorted. Even before the term Pan-India started, the audiences were watching the dubbed versions of South films in huge numbers in North, people could already recognize them. People were just waiting for something to come to the theaters and Baahubali did that and everyone went crazy. Baahubali opened the gates for all the South actors and filmmakers so I’m just very happy.

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