Chiranjeevi leaves Mohanlal fans upset, says he wasn’t satisfied with Lucifer

On Tuesday, Chiranjeevi at the pre-release event of his latest Telugu film GodFather spoke about the film’s original version Lucifer, and why they had to make certain changes to suit the sensibilities of Telugu audiences. His speech, where he said he wasn’t completely satisfied with Lucifer, has not gone down well with fans of actor Mohanlal, who starred as the lead in the Malayalam blockbuster.

Directed by Mohan Raja, GodFather is the Telugu remake of Mohanlal’s Lucifer. A clip of Chiranjeevi talking about why he wasn’t satisfied with Lucifer and how Mohan, the director, had to make changes to upgrade the film in its Telugu version has been widely shared on pan pages on social media.

“Despite watching it many times, I wasn’t completely satisfied with Lucifer. It is after some changes that Raja brought to the screenplay, I was satisfied and it gave me the confidence to do the film. The film will engage without any dull moments. It will definitely satisfy you all,” Chiranjeevi had said in the video as he promoted GodFather.

Chiranjeevi’s comment on Lucifer has upset Mohanlal’s fans, who feel the original should be respected. One fan commented on a clip of actor Kamal Haasan talking about the respect he had for Mohanlal’s 2013 film Drishyam, while remaking it as Papanasam in 2015. The comment read, “When Kamal did Papanasam from Drishyam, this is the respect that he paid for the original (sic).”

Another user tweeted, “Firstly, they buy the rights to make remakes without doing anything original… and then they call the original ‘dissatisfying’ publicly (sic).” One Twitter user also wrote that nobody could match Mohanlal’s acting. “You people can’t match our Mohanlal’s class acting. Lucifer movie is classic, nobody can come near it.”

GodFather is a political action-drama which also stars Salman Khan in an extended cameo. The film also features Nayanthara, Satyadev and Murali Sharma, among others in key roles. It released in theatres on October 5.