Exclusive! Nani addresses his ‘publicity’ comment against Arshad Warsi

Better late than sorry, Nani warns.

A day after generating controversy for his comment against Arshad Warsi In the backdrop of recent criticism over Prabhas’ casting in summer blockbuster Kalki, Telugu star Nani says he should have been more vocal in his reaction.

On Wednesday night, the Telugu star started trending online minutes after unveiling the trailer of his upcoming film, Surya’s Saturday. But for a reason he wouldn’t have preferred. Asked by a journalist about Warsi’s controversial opinion on Prabhas“In Kalki, Nani sparked a fresh controversy. Warsi, in a conversation on “Unfiltered by Samdish”, had said that Prabhas “was a joker” in Kalki.

“I’m very sad. Prabhas was like a Joker. I want to see a Mad Max movie. I want to see Mel Gibson in it.What did you do to us, my friend? Why do you act like this? I am not included in society.(What did you think about it? Why do they do these things? I never understand it.)”

While the English translation of Nani’s comment made in Telugu reads, “The person you are referring to, this must be the biggest publicity he has ever received in his life. You are unnecessarily glorifying a matter of no importance.” While Nani won plaudits from Prabhas’ fans, he received backlash from a section of the Hindi film audience, who considered his comment an insult to Warsi.

In an interview with Mid-Day, Nani says it is a case of loss in translation. “I saw on the internet how it would sound when a language is translated into English. That always happens with social media,” he begins.

For Nani, her reaction was natural, given her love for Prabhas. But later, when she saw the “full video” featuring Warsi, her perspective changed.

“I had only heard what he had said because the cut clips were all over social media, like mine was all over yesterday. Look, this is about a very dear person. When it’s about a person you really love, you immediately react and say, ‘Why are you making such a big deal out of a trivial matter?’ But after seeing a lot of reactions on social media, I went back and watched the whole thing in its entirety. So now I understand. The whole thing has been exaggerated through the media and social media. And even my reaction has been exaggerated,” she says.

Nani says actors should be careful about making their opinions public.

“Arshad Warsi ji is a very good actor and we all adore him in Munna Bhai, not just in the North or South, but all over India. It is a family film. When we sit with our friends in our homes, we can criticise the films and the actors. But as actors, we have to be extremely careful with our choice of words. In that way, he and I are victims,” ​​he shares.

In the age of the Internet, when no celebrity comment is too small to go unanswered, Nani believes it is better for actors to own up to their mistakes.

“Definitely, my choice of words was poor too. The best thing you can do is accept your regret. But what I am also saying is that it sounds really bad when translated. In this situation, the journalist was constantly trying to push that question everywhere, and I was trying to say that they are giving it too much importance. Someone mentioned their opinion and there was a reaction, that’s how it started. Any comment from that side or this side will be blown out of proportion. And if we stray, it’s time for us to take responsibility, whether it’s me or someone else. We have to go through this whole phase and only then move on because sometimes emotions are strong and you will react to something and you may feel, ‘It was unnecessary, why did I react? ’” The actor referring to his upcoming release, where the character decides to vent his anger only on one day of the week, jokes, “Just like Surya’s Saturday, we all need to have that one day where we react and we don’t react on the same day so that we can really measure our words much better.”

Nani also acknowledges that Warsi was entitled to his opinion. The actor believes his choice of words could have been altered.

“In the end, what matters is that Kalki is a 1000 crore film. People love it. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to like it. We all have our opinions and everyone can share them and he (Warsi) has the right to share them but he can do so with better choice of words. Besides, who are we to correct? But someone asked us for our opinion and we reacted.”

Towards the end, Nani emphasises that fan wars on social media are not a reflection of the true sentiment shared between Bollywood and South artists.

“I have been a big fan of the directors and actors here and we have grown up watching their films. If you take social media, in Telugu cinema, fans fight each other. Every day you need a topic for a war. That’s how they spend their time from morning to night. That’s exciting for them. But let’s stop taking social media wars seriously. When we meet each other, we don’t think in terms of North-South differences. The maximum difference will be between our favourite food and yours (laughs). In fact, we want to know more about each other. Now, in particular, cinema is celebrated all over the world. In 2024, there is Indian cinema and we are all like studios operating from different regions, making films in different languages ​​and taking them all over India. There is respect for each other and we express it whenever we get a chance. This has increased now. That’s why I guess even a small thing triggers more, because earlier we didn’t have this (exchange of love). If these kinds of things happened every other day, nobody would have cared. “One. But we have been seeing love for so long, so all these words become big news,” she says. Having put the controversy behind her, Nani signs off by saying, “Tomorrow, I might meet Arshad Warsi ji and we might hug each other.”

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