Sandeep Reddy opens up on Kabir Singh reviewers and calls them parasites and pseudo critics

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga has finally broken his silence over the reviewers of Shahid Kapoor's Kabir Singh and made a sensational remark, by calling them parasites and pseudo-critics.

Released in the theatres on June 21, Kabir Singh has taken the box office by a storm and become a blockbuster by collecting Rs 218 crore net at the domestic market. But the movie has created a lot of buzz in media over its criticism more than its numbers. The makers of the film, who were all thrilled its success, stayed away from making comments reviewers especially feminist.

Two weeks after its release, Sandeep Reddy Vanga has opened up on the reviews of Kabir Singh in an interview to Anupama Chopra's Film Companion. Talking about its success, the director said, "When I started the film, I thought it would be a success at the box office, but I never thought that the rage would be never repeated. It is multiplied four times now. I anticipated its box office success, but I thought that it is not possible to the madness and rage that the original version had."

When asked about the criticism, Sandeep Reddy said, "There is part of the criticism that also happened with Arjun Reddy as well, but this was little bizarre. I always believe people get angry when you go beyond their belief pattern. When you question their belief system, they get angry. I think that's what happened with Kabir Singh. It is not even a healthy criticism. It's very pseudo."

Explaining pseudo-criticism, Sandeep Reddy added, "I feel it pseudo because when you are deeply in love and deeply connected to a woman and vice versa, there is a lot of honesty in it. If you don't have the liberty of slapping each other, then I don't see anything there. These woman critics, who were talking about love, were never in love. Probably they never experienced it in the right way."

Talking about Hindi film critics, Sandeep Reddy said, "I also faced a lot of criticism for my Telugu film, but I have enjoyed it. The reason is that they were criticizing too many aspects of my movie, but here they were only on the feminist side. Here they did not speak anything else."

Sandeep Reddy added, "There are production values, cinematography, background score, sound design, colour correctness. They wrote about editing and directing. I know they hate me. But other than me, there are 24 other crafts. They never mentioned any point. I can clearly see they don't understand the difference between the description and objectifying. If somebody is fat, you call him fat."

"Rajeev Masand reviewed my film and he gave a 2-star rating. I don't see a point. I have seen him giving more than 3 stars for stupid films. I didn't understand it, said Sandeep adding, "These guys are a threat to the film industry, but not piracy. There is curiosity in piracy because those are the guys, who get money to you. They are never a threat to me. The guys or women like this are a real threat to the industry.  This is not personal, but a general feeling of every filmmaker."

Some feminists have opined that Kabir Singh encourages rape culture. Talking about them, Sandeep Reddy said, "One lady review said that this movie encourages rape culture. At the age of 24, I worked closely with rape victims. During college days, I was a physiotherapist in the post-surgical ward. I have dealt with rape victim with very close proximity. I know their stories and I can feel their emotions."

The director added, "These critics just used that word and they don't even know about the spelling of it. They are talking about films, which have made them popular. In a very softer tone, I would say that they are parasites for the film industry. I don't see them even as critics, because critics talk about a lot of things. You just attack and say something."

Sandeep Reddy raised a question Rajeev Masand's ratings for a sexist and toxic film like Sanju. He said, "Rajeev Masand gave 3.5 (stars) to Sanju. "Sanju where is my mangalsutra?" What happens after that, you can talk volumes about it. Everybody loved it. When he says he slept with 300-odd women, we were all cheering and whistling in the theatre."