Media365
4 min readHyderabadOct 3, 2026 04:15 PM IST
Vijay Deverakonda’s 2022 film Liger was hyped as his big pan-Indian film but before one could blink, the film flopped at the box office. But, that does not mean that Vijay did not put his heart and soul into the film. In a recent interview, he opened up about the massive toll that his body underwent for the preparation of the film as at one point, he was just taking 200 ml of water. During the shoot, even that wasn’t allowed so he was just licking an ice cube. Vijay admitted that this was not healthy, and after he was done with the shoot, he was just craving for some chilled coconut water.
He shared that he started with four to six litres of water a day. The intake was gradually reduced, and by the end, he was just taking 200 ml water a day.”In the last 10 hours before the shoot, you’re not drinking water. You’re just licking an ice cube,” Vijay Deverakonda said in a conversation with Sudhir Srinivasan. “It’s not at all healthy,”
The deprivation consumed him entirely. “Every second, from the time I was drinking 300 ml of water a day, every minute you’re just like: water, water, water. That’s all you need. That’s all you want at that moment,” he said. “When I was licking that ice cube and was not allowed water, I was sleeping thinking of water. I was like, I can’t function like this.” He knew he had to endure four more hours of shooting before he could finally drink. His instructions to his team were desperate and precise. “I told them, I want coconut water, get four litres of it. I didn’t want food, I just wanted chilled coconut water,” he said.
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Vijay recalled this incident as he was promoting his upcoming film Ranabaali, which is set during the Madras Famine of 1876-78. Vijay said the images from that period are among the most disturbing things he has ever seen. “They used to call it the Madras Famine because everywhere you went, people’s ribs and chests were popping out because their stomachs had just shrunk from starvation,” he said. “There are images from those times which, when you see them, are so disturbing. You can’t even believe it.”
He said every person he showed the images to had the same reaction. “Every time I saw those images, and every time we showed them to someone, the reaction was: is this real? This happened in India?” he said.
The research changed something fundamental in Vijay Deverakonda. “Every time we eat and I don’t want to have that meal because I don’t like it, I stop myself,” he said. “People were starving 150 years ago. They would have felt like the gods had blessed them if they had even just the white rice, forget the chicken and the vegetables. You can’t take this for granted. It gives you a perspective on starvation that you don’t forget.”
Ranabaali releases in theatres on October 16.
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Disclaimer: The extreme physical transformation and extreme fluid restriction described above are part of an actor’s movie preparation and do not constitute healthy fitness advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional before undertaking severe dietary restrictions or rapid weight transformation routines.
