Actor Vijay Deverakonda often grabs the headlines for both his professional and personal lives. He is also not immune to controversies. For the unversed, he faced severe criticism for adding 'The' before his name. In an interview, the actor opened up about the controversy, and why he decided to drop the tag from his name.
Vijay Deverakonda on removing 'The' from his name
Vijay recalled the "crazy amount of backlash" he received for adding ‘The’ to his name. "Interestingly, no other person ever got backlash for something like that. You can have any name—from Universal Star to People’s Star—and people younger than me, older than me, those who debuted before me, everyone has a tagline. I was probably the only one without one. Nobody else gets backlash," he said.
The 36-year-old actor shared that it was during the promotions of Liger (2022), his team asked him to add a tag, as other stars had their own titles. Vijay resisted for a long time because he didn’t want the tag. He just wanted to be known by his name. But he was called 'Southern Sensation', 'Rowdy Star' and by other names by the media.
Vijay revealed he was uncomfortable being called ‘Southern Sensation'. "I am not 'Southern Sensation', I am of India. I want to be known, at least, by India, someday. And I felt everything was limiting. I want to be known as Vijay Deverakonda," he said.
He and his team then decided to put ‘The’ to his name, but it gave an invitation to criticism.
Vijay Deverakonda took the decision to not add any tags to his name and asked his team to remove 'The' as he wanted only his name to be remembered and "nothing more, nothing less."
Vijay Deverakonda work front
On the professional front, Vijay Deverakonda will be seen in Kingdom, which is all set to hit the screens on July 31, 2025. Next, he has Rowdy Janardhan.
