Naga Vamsi, the nephew of S. Radha Krishna (popularly known as Chinna Babu), is a prominent film producer associated with Sithara Entertainment. Under this banner, Vamsi has been producing and presenting films, many of which involve collaborations with acclaimed director Trivikram Srinivas.
Sithara Entertainment's debut production was Julayi (starring Allu Arjun), marking the beginning of its association with Trivikram. In 2015, the banner collaborated with both Trivikram and Allu Arjun again for the successful film S/O Satyamurthy.
In 2018, the company produced two films directed by Trivikram. Agnyaathavaasi, starring Pawan Kalyan, and Aravinda Sametha, starring Jr. NTR and Pooja Hegde.
The company's 2020 film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, starring Allu Arjun, became one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of all time.
In 2024, he produced blockbusters like Guntur Karam, Tillu Square, and Lucky Baskhar and was invited to the producer's roundtable 2024, hosted by Bharadwaj Rangan for Galata Plus.
Clash of titans
In this interview, all the guests shared their thoughts and opinions about how today's cinema works and how there is no fixed formula for it.
During this conversation, Boney Kapoor and Naga Vamsi had a debatable conversation about their opinions on South films and their impact on Bollywood.
Naga Vamsi, who is known for speaking his heart out, which sometimes comes out as blunt and rude, said South Indian films have changed the outlook towards films.
He then added, saying, "One thing, sir, you have to accept this. It might sound really harsh. We, South Indians, have changed the way you [Bollywood] look at cinema. Because you guys [Bollywood] were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. You witnessed a change with Baahubali, RRR, Animal, and Jawan."
Boney disagreed, saying Naga Vamsi was "wrong there." Naga Vamsi immediately responded by pointing out that while talking about films, Boney named Baahubali and RRR (Telugu films) after "historical" Mughal-E-Azam but "never mentioned a Hindi film."
Boney replied, "In this forum, we can't be talking about every bit of knowledge we know. We need to talk in broader terms. When I say Mughal-E-Azam, Baahubali, and all that, it's not that I've missed out on other films. I know those films. At the tip of my fingers, I can rattle out those names.
But it's nothing like Telugu cinema has taught Indians. I don't believe that. It was always there. Even the hero (Allu Arjun) of Pushpa 2 said that he is a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He could have said that he was a big fan of NT Rama Rao.
While the two producers were putting their opinions out about how films have changed the landscape of cinema and how there's no language barrier anymore, they clarified that there was no disrespect and that Boney and Naga Vamsi hugged it out after the panel ended.
Filmmakers like Sanjay Gupta and Hansal Mehta didn't agree with Naga Vamshi and lashed out at him.
Sanjay Gupta commented, saying, "4-5 hits Dene se ae Bollywood ke Baap nahi banengey," meaning by giving 4-5 Tollywood hits, they won't be apart from Bollywood.
Hansal Mehta claimed Lucky Baskhar's script was copied from his hit web series Scam. While Naga Vamshi and Boney Kapoor have cleared out this controversy, it did bring many filmmakers to spark this controversy further.
