Sandeep Reddy should learn from Sukumar

Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the director of ‘Arjun Reddy’ and ‘Kabir Singh’, has shot himself in the foot by inviting legitimate criticism from different quarters with his recent interview.  For those of you who haven’t watched the interview, the director controversially made bizarre statements like these: “If you don’t have the liberty to slap each other, there is no love there”, “Intimidation has its own charm”, “Some film critics are like parasites who are more dangerous than piracy”, “Anger is the purest form of emotion”, etc.  He also suggested that those who haven’t been beaten up by their lover may never have fallen in love in reality.

There are no two ways about it.  Sandeep Reddy’s statements are straight up offensive. He should have remained content with defending his film and its two lead actors.  But he went many steps further.  He made generalized statements and clearly used problematic language.  As Samantha Akkineni has rightly said, it’s wrong to make a generalized statement about having the liberty to slap each other in love.  Who is anybody to decide that love gives you the liberty to slap your partner?  

Here is where director Sukumar holds lessons for Sandeep.  Sukumar showcased problematic characters in ‘Arya’ and ‘Arya-2’.  In ‘Arya’, Allu Arjun’s character likens the heroine to an object/structure.  “If Taj Mahal can be loved by any number of people, why can’t I love Geetha just because some other guy is already in love with her?” he asks in a scene.  In ‘Arya-2’, he does behave like an obsessive guy here and there.  But Sukumar never made generalized statements, telling everyone what he thinks is the gold standard in love.  He was always the spokesperson ONLY of his characters, and he never gave crazy statements.  Also, his films gave a reason for the behaviour of the lead man.  Sandeep Reddy should take a leaf out of Sukumar and avoid making destructive remarks.  Leave such things to RGVs of the world.