It all began with a slap.
Before Sandeep Reddy Vanga went national with Shahid Kapoor-starrer Kabir Singh, cinephiles who were into South cinema had got a taste of his filmmaking style with his 2017 debut Arjun Reddy, headlined by Vijay Deverakonda.
Both titular protagonists in Kabir Singh and Arjun Reddy are brilliant doctors who can do successful operations while drunk. They are certified rulebreakers with a certain swag that inflates the alpha male ego. When they are not working, falling asleep drinking, they are smoking and creating a ruckus as they wallow in the memories of their lost love, named Preeti in both Hindi and Telugu versions.
The two characters express their emotions to their respective Preetis (Shalini Pandey, Kiara Advani) intensely, many a time intimidating them, taking away their agency, and slapping them to show their love.
Soon after the release of 2019's Kabir Singh, in an interview with film critic Anupama Chopra, Sandeep Reddy Vanga defended the personal dynamics, saying, "If you can't slap, if you can't touch your woman wherever you want, and if you can't use cuss words, then I don't see any emotion there. Then it's all margins and papers. There's nothing unconditional about it."
His defence of these slaps had perhaps the most resounding echo after that of Dilip Kumar's to Anupam Kher in 1986's Karma, notwithstanding the one Taapsee Pannu received at the hands of Pavail Gulati in Thappad (2020) or Chris Rock from Will Smith at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.
If one were to (begrudgingly) agree with Sandeep Reddy Vanga, in both Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh, the heroines do get a chance to slap the heroes.
And that's where lies his appeal. His brand of macho men and alpha male narrative mirrors that of notorious influencers like Andrew Tate. It is in this manosphere that Sandeep Reddy Vanga and his supporters thrive. Asserting this toxic idea of masculinity in films acts as a vent; even a leeway; to men who really believe that there is nothing wrong in hitting their partners or robbing women of their agency by labelling them as 'meri bandi'.
Five years after Kabir Singh, the filmmaker grabbed more eyeballs and legitimacy from the creme de la creme when Ranbir Kapoor, a fourth-generation star from Hindi cinema's 'first family', boarded the cast of Animal. The film went on to become one of the top grossing Hindi films of 2023 despite all the hue and cry around the objectification of women and misogyny, including the infamous 'lick my shoe' scene.
After the film became a box office success, Sandeep Reddy Vanga gave an interview to Connect FM Canada in which he took a direct dig at film critics Anupama Chopra, Rajeev Masand, and Sucharita Tyagi, calling them "illiterate" and "uneducated".
He also got into a squabble with veteran lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar over the scene.
Last year, Javed Akhtar expressed concern about the current state of cinema in an apparent swipe at Animal over the said scene without taking names. The Animal team clapped back at Javed Akhtar, calling his art "false" in an X post.
But Sandeep Reddy Vanga couldn't take it when Deepika Padukone reportedly quit Spirit over a host of reasons, including hours of work and remuneration issues.
Amid this latest controversy, Deepika Padukone received support from Bollywood star Ajay Devgn.
At the trailer launch of his production Maa, Ajay Devgn gave his two cents on the 8-hour work shift demand by new mothers in the film industry.
"Most of the honest filmmakers would not have a problem with it. Also, other than new moms working for 8 hours, most people have started working for 8 hours. I think it's person to person, and most of the industry understands," Ajay Devgn at the event.
For someone who often tends to offend, hurt, and disgust with both his cinema and comments, the filmmaker lashing out at his critics and industry colleagues is irony at its best. As someone who is well known for being unabashedly vocal about his style of filmmaking and personal beliefs, Sandeep Reddy Vanga's outburst on X against (an unnamed actor, which if reports are to be believed is) Deepika Padukone, doesn't come as a surprise.
Especially when a source in these reports claimed that the heroine's character in Spirit is the "most well-written female role in the world of Sandeep Reddy Vanga" (chokes laughing). He was bound to question the actor's feminism, which he did.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga is a repeat offender. He is quite like that jilted lover who just can't stomach rejection, whether it's a film critic who speaks up about what is problematic with his films, or informed audiences, or a woman superstar choosing to prioritise her mental well-being and personal life over her career and insane working hours.
This is not Sandeep Reddy Vanga's first controversy and this won't be his last.
Will he offend people again? Of course.
Will we be offended again? The joke's on us if we are.
