Naga Chaitanya saw people walking out of theatre midway through his debut film Josh: ‘That experience scarred me’

Naga Chaitanya has had a successful career in Telugu cinema but he did not have the best beginning. He made his acting debut with the 2009 film Josh, which registered a strong opening but was eventually unsuccessful at the box office. An incident related to the film left Chaitanya ‘scarred’, the actor revealed in a recent interview. Also read: Naga Chaitanya seen at Sanjay Leela Bhansali office, fans say ‘make Devdas’

Josh also starred Karthika in her debut as well as JD Chakravarthy. The film was directed by Vasu Varma and Dil Raju. The film was slated to release on September 3, 2009 but had to be delayed at the last minute due to the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. It eventually released on September 5. Many trade insiders said at the time that the delayed release hurt the film commercially.

In a recent interview with Mashable India, Chaitanya spoke about how he doesn’t go to the theatres showing his films on opening day to gauge the public mood. “A lot of people go for the first day. I can’t because I am a wreck. I have severe anxiety problems on the day the film is releasing. It’s like what if they don’t respond, what if they don’t laugh, what if they get up and go away,” he said.

He then revealed that he did go for Josh and what transpired there left him scarred. “For my first film Josh, I went to the theatre and of course, it was brilliant when it opened but it didn’t do too well. Towards the end of the film, people started getting up and walking out and that hit me hard. I was like ‘I am here to entertain people and I am not able to do that’. That experience scarred me but it also taught me a lot. After that film, I have never gone back to the theatre to experience that because I just have that memory in my head but I do want to break it one day,” he added.

The actor recently made his Hindi film debut with Laal Singh Chaddha, which stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, and Mona Singh. The Advait Chandan film was released on August 11. Chaitanya will now make his OTT debut later this year with the Prime Video series Dootha, which also stars Prachi Desai.

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