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Spirit: Deepika Padukone makes Sandeep Reddy Vanga cry, reacts X!

PUBLISHED DATE : 27/May/2025

Spirit: Deepika Padukone makes Sandeep Reddy Vanga cry, reacts X!

Spirit starring Prabhas in the lead is an upcoming Telugu movie, which is yet to go on floors. Spirit is written and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who is infamous for showcasing toxic masculinity in his movies such as Arjun Reddy (2017), its Hindi version Kabir Singh (2019), and the Bollywood movie Animal (2023). 

 

Telugu film industry for the past 10 months has been relentlessly reporting about how Sandeep Reddy Vanga has been waiting for Bollywood star actress Deepika Padukone's 'dates', and her final nod for signing as the female lead of Spirit. This is a tactic often used in showcasing interest in casting an actor, which sometimes also is used for pressurizing. 

 

Deepika Padukone has previously starred alongside Prabhas in Kalki 2898 AD (2024), but in the last 1 year hasn't signed any movie because of giving birth. Recently, Sandeep Reddy Vanga announced that actress Tripti Dimri who has previously worked with him on Animal, has been signed as Spirit's female lead. 

 

This was also accompanied by PR articles taking digs at Deepika Padukone for "demanding" a work-environment conducive to a new mother. Details like Padukone's remuneration ask, and her expectations of a 6-8 hour shift timings were shared in these articles. It was clear that these details were coming from team Spirit, who scorned by not securing Padukone's dates, went to the extent of tagging her "unprofessional". 

 

But Deepika Padukone is a seasoned Bollywood professional, who has remained at the top of her game for 20+ years now. So the actress' PR ensured to present their side, and revealed that the reason Padukone said no to Spirit was because of the adult nature of the female character being narrated to her. Typically, when challenging roles of such nature are offered to heroines/actresses, they come up with asks of a tall-order. 

 

This results in two scenarios. Either the one offering the role is forced to drop the actress not able to meet the expectations, or gives in, making it a win-win situation for both the makers, and the actress in question. This is how casting negotiations across the world work, and are typically employed to save awkwardness.  


However Spirit director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who in the past has been known to exhibit unprofessional nature with his unruly behaviour against women interviewers, turned Deepika Padukone presenting her side of the story into an act of "dirty PR game", completely forgetting that team Spirit was the one that tagged an actress of her stature "unprofessional" in the first place. 

 

Vanga took to X to rant, "When I narrate a story to an actor, I place 100% faith. There is an unsaid NDA(Non Disclosure Agreement) between us. But by doing this, You've 'DISCLOSED' the person that you are.... Putting down a Younger actor and ousting my story? Is this what your feminism stands for ? As a filmmaker, I put years of hard work behind my craft & for me, filmmaking is everything. You didn't get it. You won't get it. You will never get it. Aisa karo.... Agli baar poori kahani bolna... kyunki mujhe jarra bhi farak nahi padtha. #dirtyPRgames I like this kahawath very much :-) खुंदक में बिल्ली खंबा नोचे !"

 

X reactions to Vanga's post have been understandably strong, given this isn't the first time the filmmaker is lashing out at a Bollywood veteran. Some of them listed here:

 

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