Fox News Outraged: Why Is an Indian Actor Stirring Controversy as the Lead in ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunam’?

Has anyone ever heard an angrier argument for white-washing since ScarJo started collecting passports like Pokémon cards? Oh, Jesse Watters, crusader for the all-American Tollywood experience—because if there’s anything the Telugu film industry is missing, it’s Chris Pratt in a handlebar mustache driving a tractor through Andhra Pradesh . Am I living in an alternate dimension where Fox News anchors genuinely believe diversity means recasting Subrahmanyam with a Hemsworth? This satirical gem doesn’t just poke fun at the DEI panic—it positively skewers it with a wink and nudge, like Greg Giraldo in prime form after too much coffee . Got a few opinions about authenticity in cinema or just like watching cable news hosts spiral into a feedback loop? Either way, the popcorn’s on me . LEARN MORE

NEW YORK—Arguing that producers should consider their audience before catering to the whims of the “woke internet mob,” Fox News host Jesse Watters decried Tuesday the casting of an Indian man in the lead role of the film Sankranthiki Vasthunam. “I don’t know about you, but I like my Tollywood films all-American,” said a visibly agitated Watters, claiming that DEI had ruined the Telugu-language action-comedy film that made waves this year in India’s second-largest film market. “Why cast Daggubati Venkatesh when we all know they could’ve just as easily gone with Chris Pratt? The role of Yadagari Damodara Raju has always been a white man, as far as I’m concerned. And we all know Pratt has the chops to carry both the wild Tollywood action sequences and Raju’s lively banter with his ex-girlfriend Meenakshi, who, for the record, should’ve been played by Scarlett Johansson. So unless every white actor from Hollywood to Hyderabad turned the role down, I don’t see any reason why they needed to virtue signal with an Indian guy no one has heard of except for fans of Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu.” Watters went on to state that the makers of 2025’s highest-grossing Telugu film would pay for their “woke stunt” at the box office.