No sooner had Varisu producer Dil Raju controversially claimed that actor Vijay was a 'bigger star' than actor Ajith, the Telugu film producer was seen issuing statements about how he was 'afraid to talk to the media' again. Vijay's Varisu and Ajith's Thunivu are releasing for Pongal in January, 2023 and both are expected to hit theater screens on the same date i.e. January 12. 

Dil Raju who had previously claimed that equal amount of theater screens were not enough for Varisu because 'Vijay is a bigger star', and that he would be requesting Thunivu distributor Red Giant Movies to give up screens for Varisu, has now repeated his fan-war inducing claim. [Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies has since become the sub-distributor of Varisu in five regions of Tamil Nadu]

When asked to clarify if he meant to degrade actor Ajith with his comparisons, Dil Raju had this to say, "What was the sense behind my statement? In Tamil Nadu, there are n number of screens - I am being given 4 and Ajith's movie (Thunivu) is equally being given 4. My hero (Vijay) is a bit bigger.."

Defending his statement, Dil Raju further added, "What decides a hero? Not remuneration..Iits the theatrical revenue of the last 5-6 movies (that decides who's a bigger hero)..Its not the non-theatrical revenue because its all hoax..Theatrical revenue, irrespective of a film's outcome is what decides a proper hero or the star value of a hero..Look at the last 5 films of Vijay. All those films have given > Rs. 60 Cr. in Tamil Nadu theatrical revenue share!..So naturally he's a bigger star."

Only a collective testament from theater owners and distributors in Tamil Nadu can actually confirm if movies like Mersal (2017), Sarkar (2018), Bigil (2019), Master (2021) and Beast (2022) yielded more than Rs. 60 Cr. in theatrical revenue share. Meanwhile Dil Raju's current interview is going viral on social media once again.