“Manchild Of The Year,” Do Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Movies Normalise Hitting Women?

The Indian film industry has always been a pretty good breeding ground for not just talent but controversial names. People who are known not just for their professional work but also their offscreen appearance, statements and more.

For a long time, this was pretty much just for celebrities, actors, and then online influencers who would make news with what they would say to the media outside of their projects.

But now, directors have also joined the bandwagon, once choosing to stay away from the limelight and hardly people could recall their names, today directors are almost as well known as the actors themselves, and among them is the much controversial name of Sandeep Reddy Vanga.

Sandeep Vanga A Controversy

Recently Vanga was in the news for the official Twitter/X account of the ‘Animal’ movie responded to Javed Akhtar’s criticism of it. Akhtar reportedly made some comments, that although he didn’t outright take any names said “If there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe, if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman…and the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous.”

To this, the official handle of the film tagged the veteran writer and lyricist and wrote “Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE & If a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said “lick my shoe” then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it feminism. Let love be free from the politics of gender. Let’s just call them lovers. LOVER cheated and lied. LOVER said lick my shoe. Period (sic).”

This angered a lot of people who came out in defense of Akhtar and claimed that this was no way to take criticism, how it seemed that the director himself was running the account and more.

Read More: Toxic Masculinity, Stalking And Women As Just Plot Devices Are Some Notions Of Romance In Bollywood

Animal, a 2023 film written and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga came out on 1st December. Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, Triptii Dimri, and more, the film has been both been a box-office hit and the cause of much debate.

The film and particularly its director raised many questions about the striking misogyny, violence and sexist tropes that were shown in it. Given that it’s Reddy’s film people brought up how this seems to be a theme with the director considering his previous Hindi film Kabir Singh, a remake of his own Telugu film Arjun Reddy.

Kabir Singh had also been called out for promoting toxic masculinity and violence against women along with other problematic tropes.

Soon after the movie came out, Reddy was already in news for lashing out against the criticism of the movie and critics especially. In an interview with Connect FM Canada Sandeep said “Nobody speaks about the craft, the editing, sound design, because they are literally illiterate, uneducated when it comes to films. They have no sense of how to criticise the film or review the film.”

He also claimed that critics were getting famous because of his films saying  “You’re making money, fame, name, everything by criticising my film, then go ahead. That’s what happened with most of the critics during Kabir Singh. Their shot to fame was criticising ‘Kabir Singh’.”

In 2019 soon after the release of Kabir Singh, Vanga in an infamous interview with Anupama Chopra said “If you don’t have the liberty of slapping each other, then I don’t see anything there. If you can’t slap, touch your woman wherever you want, I don’t see emotions”.

However, later on in an interview with Deccan Chronicle he clarified his statement as only trying to explain the character’s mindset and that Film Companion edited out certain sections of his comments.

He said “I had to say what I had to say. And then they cut out portions of my comments. Now people don’t know what I said before and after those comments. The content was edited in a very wrong way so that a section of women got another chance to attack me. But I was trying to explain my protagonist’s mindset. Violence may be his way of expressing love. It’s not mine.”

He further added “I never said one “needs” to slap. All I meant was, one needs to be fully honest in a committed relationship. And that honesty can take a violent form. And why is only Kabir slapping his girlfriend being talked about? What about the fact that she too slaps him back? It works both ways. How they express their love is their choice. Why are some people judging them? And judging me for the way the character’s behaviour? My point is, in a true relationship the emotions can get raw and violent.”

Even during the run of the Animal movie, while initially people did agree that perhaps some critics were being a bit harsh on Reddy, however, the constant slamming of anyone who criticizes the movie and the director’s attitude has rubbed people the wrong way now.

User @Physicslad1997 wrote “Manchild of the year award goes to Sandeep Vanga. Man is mysogynist & cry like a baby at first hint of criticism.”

Another user @akshatmahajan_commented “I think Sandeep Reddy Vanga is now overdoing it. It is understandable that he is one of those directors who openly defend their movies but defending each n every criticism is not needed. He could have stoped defending Animal a long time ago.”

In a Reddit thread questioning if there is any comparison between Vanga and another Hindi filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, one user Maple-Syrup-Bandit commented “Vanga is a repressed angry man child. Anurag is an artist.”

Another user sarthakmahajan610 wrote “Rebellious in cinematography and violence, yes But Anurag was never controversial for misogyny.. Despite making movies as raw as GoW and Black Friday, he never made anything that justifies such stuff.. He shows morally wrong character as they are, not worship them.”

While people certainly accept that Sandeep Reddy Vanga is a talented filmmaker, although not the best as a writer, the problematic themes of his movies have been said to be there more for shock value and to create buzz rather than have any real artistic reason.

Vanga has been praised for his direction and cinematography as well as the music of his movies, but that does not take away that the movies do have topics that don’t come across in the best way.

Do you tell us, readers, do Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s films normalise hitting women?

Image Credits: Google Images

Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth

Sources: Hindustan Times, India Today, NDTV

Find the blogger: @chirali_08

This post is tagged under: Sandeep Reddy Vanga, kabir singh, arjun reddy, animal, animal Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Sandeep Reddy Vanga critics, Sandeep Reddy Vanga director, Sandeep Reddy Vanga movies, animal critics, animal movie, animal movie ranbir kapoor, kabir singh film, toxic masculinity, bollywood, women, feminism, Sandeep Reddy Vanga slap

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