Shalini Pandey on Arjun Reddy’s slap scene: ‘I was so young and naive at the point’

Actor Shalini Pandey has opened up about the criticism that her debut film Arjun Reddy was sexist. In a recent interview, Shalini said that she was young and naive when she signed the movie and nothing else mattered to her at that point in time as the film was the biggest thing in her life then.

Arjun Reddy, upon release, was criticised for propagating toxic masculinity and misogyny in the name of love. A particular scene of the titular character, played by Vijay Deverakonda, slapping his girlfriend Preethi (Shalini Pandey) received a lot of backlash. After six years, Shalini opened up about the scene in an interview with News 18. The actor was quoted as saying, ““I was 21 when I signed the film. For me, it was bigger than anything else… It was like a dream. Nothing else mattered to me at that point.”

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Shalini Pandey, who doesn’t want to defend Arjun Reddy, refused to share her opinion about the film now as she thinks it doesn’t matter. However, she claimed that the movie will always be close to her heart and it’s her ‘baby’. “But I’ve no opinions on how people took it. We’re all evolving. Everybody has their own opinion and has the right to speak about a film in the way they want to,” she added.

Arjun Reddy, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, is about an arrogant MBBS student who is obsessed with his junior in college. Also starring Rahul Ramakrishna, Jia Sharma, and Kanchana, the film became a blockbuster in Telugu. It was later remade twice in Tamil (Adithya Varama and Varmaa) and Hindi (as Kabir Singh).