Mumbai, May 2 Telugu actor Vijay Deverakonda questioned the deeply instilled English supremacy saying that he realized that as a kid he was more aware of the Western culture because of their films.
Sharing that cinema is the best way to introduce others to our culture and make them learn our language, the 'Liger actor stressed that we still use English as our working language because the West came in hundreds of years ago and made sure we adapted their language.
Hoping this does not get him in trouble, VD said that we need to expand our kingdom.
"All of us conversing in English is a big soft power win for the West because they came in hundreds of years ago and made sure all of us were speaking and writing in their language. Now it’s too late to backtrack," he stated.
The 'Arjun Reddy' actor also revealed that Hollywood commands some of the biggest budgets. “Because some buggers did this 200-300 years ago for whatever purpose, now Hollywood has the biggest budgets because all of us know and watch films in English."
Citing the example of popular Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, Vijay added, "If I do a film and Brad Pitt does a film, he will get paid 100x more than me just because more people watch in his language. Which is not my fault but the fault of some guys who went and spread that language.”
Vijay admitted that he has a bit of a grouse against our ancestors as if they had been more proactive and taken measures to make the world speak Hindi or Telugu, we would all be better off.
"Cinema is one medium that keeps us close to our language. We need to encourage that." Vijay shared.
The 'Arjun Reddy' actor further said that as we blurred the lines between Bollywood and South by increasing the distribution, it is time that we increase the distribution of Indian films in the West as well.
Vijay was accompanied by Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor and filmmaker Karan Johar for the WAVES Summit 2025 panel.
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