Sandeep Reddy Vanga says he’s not violent in real life because we live in a democracy: ‘If it were the Stone Age…’

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Surprisingly, Vanga expressed support for censorship in filmmaking. When asked if his films would have been more violent without censorship, he responded that nearly everything he had filmed made it to the final cut. “Whatever I shot was pretty much there in the movie. A few words were muted. However, had censorship not been there, maybe the movie would have had more explicit language.”

He further maintained that film certification and censorship should be handled by retired filmmakers who understand the nuances of storytelling, rather than by those people who might cut scenes without proper context. “I feel censorship should be controlled by senior, retired directors, not by people who don’t understand filmmaking. It would be easier to reason with them because an ex-filmmaker would understand more. I feel the intention should be clearly judged more than talking about just one scene.”

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Sandeep Reddy Vanga also emphasised that while censorship is necessary, there should be more flexibility. “There should be censorship, otherwise people would shoot anything and show it to audiences,” he said, while advocating for a more flexible system. “Hollywood has censorship too. What you can do, however, is to categorise films appropriately, such as R-rated, instead of refusing certificates or chopping a film,” Vanga added.

He, nonetheless, acknowledged that an “A” certificate can significantly impact a film’s commercial success. “Of course, we can’t manipulate to get a U/A. I understand Animal receiving an ‘A’ certificate, but Kabir Singh shouldn’t have. We didn’t contest it because Arjun Reddy had also been given an ‘A’. Though I was upset then, the censor officer told me not to worry and even predicted that the movie would be a success.”