Sandeep Reddy Vanga was told ‘go to Bollywood’ by Telugu producers, recalls brother Pranay: ‘This kind of boldness won’t work’

Sandeep Reddy Vanga's brother Pranay said that the director was asked by Telugu producers to move to Hindi cinema as his ideas were seen as bold.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | December 26, 2023 09:43 PM IST

3 min read

Sandeep Reddy Vanga is the director of the controversial film Animal. (Photo: Sandeep Reddy Vanga/Instagram)

Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal attracted a lot of controversy for its misogynistic and violent content but the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer has emerged as one of the biggest hits of the year. Sandeep’s brother Pranay Reddy Vanga, who is also a co-producer of Animal, recently shared that back when Sandeep was still trying to bag his first Telugu film, he was told that “he should go to Bollywood” as his ideas were seen as too bold for Telugu cinema.

In a chat with Pinkvilla, Pranay said that after passing out of his film school in Australia, when Sandeep returned to Hyderabad, he thought he “would crack it easily” but it did not happen that way. “He thought he would crack it easily after coming from Australia but that wasn’t happening because of the way he was narrating the story. I don’t know… It was beyond the belief system of the producers, the way he was narrating,” Pranay told Pinkvilla.

He said that producers found Sandeep’s ideas “risky” and suggested that he should go to Bollywood. “They thought it would be risky. Some guy said that you better go to Bollywood because this kind of boldness won’t work here,” Pranay said. Sandeep and his family put in some of their own money for Arjun Reddy and after the success of the film in Telugu, when it was going to be remade in Hindi, no other director was ready to take it on.

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Pranay Reddy Vanga recalled, “They were trying with local directors over here (Mumbai) but no one was interested in directing this movie. Then Shahid forced the producers to bring the original director. That’s when he came.” Shahid Kapoor played the lead role in Kabir Singh, the Hindi remake of Arjun Reddy.

Pranay said that even after the success of Kabir Singh, Sandeep Reddy Vanga did not imagine a career in Hindi cinema and went back to Hyderabad. “He wasn’t interested in working here,” he said. But after a while, mainly after a call by Bhushan Kumar, he started planning Animal in Hindi.

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