‘Shahid Kapoor shouldn’t do remakes’, says Sandeep Reddy Vanga: ‘Didn’t think of him for Animal’

Shahid Kapoor has done a few South remakes after Kabir Singh, but none of them worked at the box office.

Mumbai | March 5, 2025 07:03 PM IST

2 min read

Sandeep Reddy Vanga feels Shahid Kapoor should not do remakes.

Shahid Kapoor seems to be going through a rough patch at the box office. Most of his recent outings have been remakes of South films as he chose to do a number of remakes after the success of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s 2019 film Kabir Singh, which was the remake of Telugu film Arjun Reddy. More than five years after the film’s release, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga has an advice for Shahid Kapoor: he should not do remakes.

“Shahid Kapoor jaise actor ko remake nahi karna chahiye (An actor like Shahid Kapoor should not do remakes). He’s such an original actor. That’s what I used to tell him so many times,” said Vanga in a chat with Komal Nahta on his YouTube channel Game Changers. Shahid played the titular role in Kabir Singh, which was played by Vijay Deverakonda in the Telugu original.

When quizzed if Sandeep considered Shahid for Animal, he instantly said no. “Nahi socha tha (I didn’t think of Shahid). Because when I thought about this emotional story, Ranbir (Kapoor) only struck. It’s just organic. Because I felt he’ll be right.” Ranbir played the lead role in the blockbuster.

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Meanwhile, ever since the success of Animal, Shahid has dabbled in a couple of remakes of South films. He starred in Gowtan Tinnanuri’s sports drama Jersey, a remake of the director’s 2019 Telugu film of the same title, which starred Nani in the lead role. Most recently, Shahid appeared in Rosshan Andrrews’ cop drama Deva, a remake of the director’s 2013 Malayalam film Mumbai Police, which starred Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead role. However, both these remakes failed to work at the box office.

In the last few years, films like Baby John, Loveyapa, Shehzada, Vikram Vedha, which were remakes of south films, have all failed at the box office. Drishyam 2 is probably the only exception.

Shahid will next be seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming film. The duo has previously worked together in Kaminey, Haider and Rangoon.

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