Zanjeer director Apoorva Lakhia has recently opened up about a shift in actor Ram Charan’s behavior toward him following the box office struggle of the actor’s debut film.
The director said, “Ram Charan is a really good friend of mine. In fact, even though Zanjeer did not perform well (at the box office), I have visited him at his house (in Hyderabad) and stayed with him many times.”
“But now, he doesn’t pick my phone calls. Pata nahi, badal gaya hai (he’s changed) phone ke nahi… His wife (Upasana) replies but not him.”
The director further recalled an incident that might be the reason behind the change in Charan’s attitude.
“He called me from Ukraine and asked me what I was upto. I told him that I was not doing (anything major). He said ‘I need to shoot two to three action sequences of the second unit, can you come and do it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll get back to you.’ Then he called again and asked, ‘Can you?’ I was shooting something or working on something so I couldn’t go. That was the last time I think I spoke to him and he calls me randomly but he doesn’t answer my calls.”
The film Zanjeer was produced in both Hindi and Telugu languages, with the Telugu version titled Thoofan. Despite featuring popular actors such as Sanjay Dutt, Srihari, Prakash Raj, Atul Kulkarni, and Mahie Gill in significant roles, the movie received mixed to negative responses from critics.