 "Firstpost at WAVES 2025: Vijay Deverakonda questions English supremacy in India: 'I do a film and Brad Pitt does a film, he will get paid 100x more just because...'")
Vijay Deverakonda, who garnered pan-India recognition for his movies like Geetha Govindam, Arjun Reddy and Dear Comrade among others, attended a panel titled The Power of Cinema at the first World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) alongside Kareena Kapoor, which was moderated by Karan Johar.
In the panel, Vijay shared how Hollywood has a ‘soft power’ citing the example of actor Hollywood star Brad Pitt. “As an actor, a lot of times I’ve been very angry. I don’t know how to say this, I hope this does not get me into trouble, but I feel we need to expand our kingdom. That all of us are 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 said.
.boxes3{height:175px;width:153px;} #n img{max-height:none!important;max-width:none!important;background:none!important} #inst i{max-height:none!important;max-width:none!important;background:none!important}
Giving the example of Brad Pitt, he added, “Because some buggers did this 200-300 years ago for whatever purpose, now Hollywood has the biggest budgets and directors because all of us know and watch films in English. If I do a film and Brad Pitt does a film, he will get paid 100x more than I just because more people are watching his language. Which is not my fault, but the fault of some guys who went and spread that language.”
The_ Family Star _ actor even claimed if Indians had been ‘more proactive,’ maybe the world would’ve been speaking Indian languages. “I feel if our ancestors were more proactive and made the world speak in Hindi or Telugu, we would all be…I have a bit of a grouse. Cinema is one thing that keeps us close to our language,” said Deverakonda.
Lachmi Deb Roy is the Entertainment Editor of Firstpost, Network18. She reviews films and series with a gender lens. She is a 'Rotten Tomatoes' certified critic. Her interviews are called 'Not Just Bollywood' because she takes a huge interest in world cinema. She has been the winner of the prestigious Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity for two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021. OTT over theatrical releases is her preference unless and until it's a King Khan film. She takes interest in fashion, food and art reviews too.