Director Vasan Bala deactivates X account after backlash over Alia Bhatt film

Agencies,Mumbai, Oct. 21: Director Vasan Bala, who made his biggest film to date with Alia Bhatt’s Jigra, was at the receiving end of a barrage of negativity following its release. Jigra received mixed response both critically and commercially, and the pre-release hype didn’t translate to post-release numbers. This became a topic of discussion around the film, which was co-produced by Alia and Karan Johar. Vasan, who previously made films like Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota and Monica O My Darling, was in the eye of a social media storm after saying in a pre-release interview that Karan sent the script for Jigra to Alia without telling him. More recently, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he admitted that he felt that he had let both Karan and Alia down with the film.

Now, it has come to light that Vasan Bala has deactivated his X account. However, his Instagram account is still alive and kicking, and he’s been sharing the appreciation coming his way from the audiences. But the responses on X were distinctly different, which might have pushed Vasan to deactivate the account.

In a media interview, Vasan opened up about various aspects of Jigra, including making a mainstream film for the first time. He said, “There will be much more scrutiny now.” The filmmaker also spoke about the importance of accepting criticism coming his way. “It’s never graceful to defend a film after a point,” said a rather candid Vasan Bala, who admitted that it is indeed a tough phase for him as a filmmaker. Comparing his previous releases to Jigra, Vasan said, “It has always been a struggle to put my film out. But this time (Jigra), it was a given that the film was going to be out and in a big way. So this is a first for me, and I don’t even know how to process this.” Even though he, time and again, assured that he felt nothing but support from Alia and Karan, many netizens blamed the team for leaving Vasan Bala to face all the criticisms.