Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga slammed actor Adil Hussain after he criticized Kabir Singh and said that he had deep regrets about acting in the said film. Adil Hussain, who played the Dean of the College in Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani’s starrer, has expressed regret for appearing in what he called a misogynist movie. After his words went viral, the director of the film, Sandeep Reddy Vanga made a harsh remark about him on X. He stated that Adil’s ’20 art films’ did not receive as much fame as the blockbuster feature did alone.
He also stated that Adil’s visual will be replaced in the film utilizing Artificial Intelligence. “Ur ‘belief’ in 30 art films didn’t get as much fame to u as ur ‘regret’ of 1 BLOCKBUSTER film did I regret casting u, knowing that ur greed is bigger than ur passion? NOW I’ll save U from the shame by replacing Ur face with AI help Now smile properly,” the Animal director wrote.
Adil, who appeared on the AP Podcast, claimed that he had no idea what Kabir Singh was about when he accepted the role. “That’s the only film in my life that I have done without reading the script, without seeing the movie which it is based on,” he went on to say. Adil added that he entered the theatre to watch the film and then left in 20 minutes. He labelled it a ‘misogynist’ film and rejected the idea of suggesting it to his wife.
“I think a film like this, it celebrates something which is not beneficial for society. It legitimizes male misogyny. It legitimizes violence against anybody for that matter, doesn’t have to be a woman. And it celebrates it, it glorifies it and it should not be glorified,” he said.
He claimed that he attempted to turn down the film by demanding a large pay cheque, but the producers agreed to pay him the requested sum. This left him with no choice but to play the role.
“I told my manager, ask them for a lot of money and they will say no but they agreed so I went and did it and I liked the scene. The scene I did was a good scene so I thought the film was also going to be good. So I went to watch the film and I thought what am I doing here? You have no idea how I felt. I felt so embarrassed,” he shared.
Kabir Singh emerged as one of 2019’s top blockbusters. It also became Shahid Kapoor’s biggest hit of his career. However, the movie was criticised by many who said that the movie glorified misogyny, as Shahid’s character behaved violently and dominantly with his love interest played by Kiara. Many of the critics called the movie chauvinistic, patriarchal and misogynistic. Even Mumbai Police had used the movie when appealing to not normalise misogyny.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga returned to theatres last year with Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor.