The film industry came together to condemn the alleged rape and brutal murder of a young veterinarian in Hyderabad on Thursday, 28 November. Now, Kabir Singh director Sandeep Reddy Vanga has taken to social media to say that fear is the only factor that can bring about a change in the society. However that did not go down too well with filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane.
Sandeep took to Twitter to write, “FEAR is the only factor which can change things radically in a society and FEAR should be the new rule. Brutal sentence will set an example. Now every girl in the country needs a firm guarantee.I request @warangalpolice to come into action.”
Vikramaditya replied to him, asking whether this “fear” will stop perpetrators from slapping women.
Motwane’s comments are in reference to an interview wherein Vanga defended Kabir Singh, claiming that when someone is deeply in love, it could lead to justifiably violent behaviour. Even Sona Mohapatra slammed Sandeep Vanga’s comment, asking him to “stop making films where you glorify sexist behaviour, misogyny & violence against women.”
Other people have also taken to Twitter to criticise the director.
A few months back, in an interview published on Film Companion’s YouTube channel, film critic Anupama Chopra questioned Sandeep Vanga on the criticism that his film Kabir Singh faced for its glorification of toxic masculinity and misogyny. Vanga responded that when people’s belief systems are questioned, they get angry. “I feel all the criticism the film faced is pseudo. When you are deeply in love there is honesty in the relationship. If you don’t have the liberty of slapping each other, I don’t see anything in that relation.”
He also took a dig at the female film critics who said they felt uncomfortable with the response from men who clapped during one scene where Kabir (Shahid Kapoor) slaps his girlfriend Preeti (Kiara Advani). “I think that these women were never in love and they never experienced it the right way,” he had said.
Vanga’s response received a lot of backlash on social media.
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