Recently, the owner of Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema, named Manoj Desai, described Vijay Deverakonda as an arrogant actor. This was after the 'Arjun Reddy' actor spoke out against the 'Boycott Liger' social media campaign. The 'Geetha Govindam' actor in an interview opined that those who don't want to watch the movie in theatres will watch it on OTT or TV. He also said, "Let me see who will stop me" (or something to that effect). Manoj Desai criticized Vijay, saying that such an attitude will antagonize the audience even more.

Meeting him on Sunday, Vijay explained his stance to the veteran exhibitor. "I have played a middle-class boy in the movie. My comments were taken out of context. I respect the audience. For the past 30 days, I promoted 'Liger' non-stop. I met hundreds of audience members. I am here because of their love. I have got no background. A section of the audience spreads boycott campaigns. I feel that they tried to stop my dreams. A small clip of my words was spread and it reached a senior exhibitor like you. My father asked me to explain it to you," Vijay told Desai.

Afterward, Desai regretted that he had misunderstood Vijay's intentions.