Actor Vijay Deverakonda has once again found himself at the center of online chatter, thanks to content creator Farhan Balaporia. On Thursday (September 4), Balaporia shared an Instagram reel that indirectly mocked the actor, dropping unmistakable hints at his identity without ever naming him.
This comes after Balaporia alleged that one of his earlier videos criticising Deverakonda was taken down at the actor's behest.
"The video that got taken down is basically him saying that Hollywood has bigger budgets because more people speak English, so the actors get paid more, and therefore they're more successful. My reaction was disagreeing with him, telling him that foreign films in different languages on low budgets have succeeded, whereas his own film with a high budget was unsuccessful," he explained.
The controversy traces back to May this year when Deverakonda compared his fees to Hollywood icon Brad Pitt. He had said Pitt earns "100 times more because he works in English films," a comment that quickly went viral and invited ridicule. Social media creators, including Balaporia, were among those who lampooned the statement.
In his latest reel, Balaporia titled the video "Actor took down my video" and dropped a series of cheeky references.
"Now, I can't name him or her, but you will probably be able to guess as I tell the story. By the way, when a lion and tiger have a child, it's called a Liger," he said, alluding to Deverakonda's much-hyped Bollywood debut Liger, which failed at the box office.
In another dig, he quipped, "I have a friend named Arjun who is never ready on time," a clear hint at the actor's breakout film Arjun Reddy.
Reacting to his own video, the content creator commented, "Imagine being so insecure you can't take criticism from a random guy on the internet."
Balaporia added that since he couldn't re-upload the deleted video, he decided to create a new one where he played out the parts himself.
Vijay's work front
Meanwhile, on the professional front, Deverakonda was last seen in Kingdom, released on July 31. Despite early buzz, the film managed only Rs 82 crore against its Rs 130-crore budget, continuing a rough streak for the actor, whose recent films Kushi and The Family Star also underperformed and failed to impress the audience.
