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Interview: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Posted on August 24, 2020
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abishekspeare
August 24, 2020
this is interesting
he’s sandeep reddy vanga to half the people , sandeep reddy ponga to the other half
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Devarsi Ghosh
August 24, 2020
I found it funny that it is Vanga of all people who uses “problematic” in an interview, and not the interviewer.
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Isai
August 25, 2020
“I found it funny that it is Vanga of all people who uses “problematic” in an interview, and not the interviewer.”
Hmm.. I get a feeling that this interview is not going to be “problematic” for anyone and is going to get a lot of views without generating any controversy..let’s see.
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Tina
August 25, 2020
BR going really? Hum aapke hain kaun?
Me: whistle whistle hoot hoot!!
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abishekspeare
August 25, 2020
When will the interview be up?
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brangan
August 25, 2020
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kaizokukeshav
August 25, 2020
I feel these are too many interviews for just one movie/story. Where is the journey as a filmmaker?
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brangan
August 25, 2020
kaizokukeshav: This is my first interview with him.
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G Personal
August 25, 2020
Man I don’t get this dude. Both versions of the film made good money and were big hits. It’s not like the criticism stopped the film from getting good box office numbers. Why so resistant to criticism then? It’s a critic’s job to write honestly about what they liked and didn’t. Does this dude think his film is perfect or is that all he wants to hear? I get that he worked hard and it’s maybe difficult to detach yourself from the process but this is ugly ego. Most of the criticism wasn’t wrong either. The dude was glorified like a typical Telugu film “hero” what with all the background music and ass kicking. Ah f*** it, you can’t even fault the dude when half the country lapped it up. It’s just disappointing to see people act like any form of criticism is being a “hater”. Sorry for the rant.
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N Madhusudhan
August 25, 2020
Ha! So refreshing to finally watch an interview that focuses on the creative aspects of the film rather than the political ones. I have still not watched the film but he seems like a very interesting filmmaker. I could buy his idea for the climax as well, which happened to be the most polarizing scene in the film. It’s great BR that you respect the film for the interesting piece of art it is and going beyond what people thought of it.
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M. R. Sharan
August 26, 2020
When Vanga is given the space to breathe, he turns into the man who made Arjun Reddy: irreverent, self-assured, arrogant; thoughtful; possessing a deep appreciation for — and knowledge of — the craft of film-making. He also has an intimate understanding of the male psyche and a certain kind of romantic relationship.
He’s a man completely in love with his story. This love permeates his frames and elevates his craft; it also makes him entirely oblivious to things that are apparent to others.
I’m not sure a politically aware Vanga could have made a film like Arjun Reddy — and I say that with neither wholesome admiration nor disdain for the movie.
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kaizokukeshav
August 26, 2020
@BR : Pardon me, now I am excited 😀
But Sandeep sticking to AR story for a while has been a big turn-off because that movie came straight of his life-time experiences. It would be interesting to see how he directs stories that derive from complete imagination and only to be considered a real maverick.
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brangan
August 26, 2020
kaizokukeshav: But Sandeep sticking to AR story for a while has been a big turn-off…
Yeah, for sure. I am not calling him a genius or any such thing, YET.
But I wanted to speak to him because I really liked the film. I had stayed off watching KABIR SINGH because I felt it was just the same thing and wanted to give it some time. And when I watched it before this interview, I was surprised at how powerful and raw the emotions still were.
“Problematic art” is still “art”. Most of the interviews I’d seen discussed the “problem” part of AR / KS, which is important, too. I wanted to talk about the “art” part.
I hadn’t seen any interviews that spoke about the film itself, the craft, the writing, the technique… Hence the interview.
And I came away really impressed by how clean his thinking / vision was for the film, how careful and deliberate certain choices were… The way he described that fight scene in the rain (the one he could not shoot) gave me goosebumps as I was listening to him.
That’s when you know he has it in him to become a really good filmmaker, which we can say only after a few films.
M. R. Sharan: What a superb comment. Thanks.
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brangan
August 26, 2020
kaizokukeshav: But Sandeep sticking to AR story for a while has been a big turn-off because that movie came straight of his life-time experiences.
Oh, another thing about this statement. Even if it came “straight out” of his life, it’s not easy to shape a screenplay out of the random events (with little lies and fictional elements) and transfer them to screen in an effective way. Otherwise, everyone who draws from life — basically, every artiste — would be a great artiste.
And two, EVEN IF Vanga makes something “from his imagination”, I’ll bet you there will be things in it from his life or the lives of those around him.
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brangan
August 26, 2020
Man, I never cease to be amazed by how creative people can get in misreading things.
So I brought up K Balachander because MARO CHARITRA / EDKL is the only example of a raw/twisted love story I could think of that repeated its Telugu success in Hindi.
And I get comments like “stop glorifying Tamil filmmakers all the time” and “there are many great Telugu directors like K Viswanath…” Huh?
😀
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Yossarian
August 26, 2020
BR on Shakuntala Devi movie – “That is: the first 15/20 minutes, when the world-building and character-building happens — if this is “off”, then the film rarely recovers after that”
SRV – “For any film, the first 15 mins will set the criteria for the film” 🙂
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brangan
August 26, 2020
Yossarian: HAHAHAHA. A complete coincidence, I swear!
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Isai
August 26, 2020
This is a very good interview..If I have to compare this to a movie, I would say it starts quite well, sags occasionally during the first 20 minutes, is almost always in top gear during the next 30 minutes and comes to a gentle close during the last 5 minutes.
One thing which I don’t understand is why Film Companion (North?) is not releasing this video or at least the promo to this video. I think that would be appropriate since Kabir Singh is a big hit in Hindi too and it will help in this video reaching to a wider audience.
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Aman Basha
August 26, 2020
Vanga seemed very collected and pleasant during the whole interview, unlike the infamous interview earlier where he, among other things, described a disgraced film critic as “that fat guy with salt-and-pepper hair”. He did seem incredibly pissed with all the moral correctness of Bollywood critics who didn’t make such a big hue-and-cry over an equally problematic Sanju, for instance. The sheer personalness of the story must have made him equally hurt from the criticism which is why he goes to such bizarre lengths to justify it again and again.
He does have technical aptitude but somewhere I’m afraid that he can never top Arjun Reddy, that film seemed like a burst of consciousness on screen.
@brangan sir: BTW, where exactly did you get criticized for making the comparison with Balachander? All the YouTube comments were roundly positive towards you for conducting such a good interview.
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kaizokukeshav
August 28, 2020
SRV, I don’t really know any newcomer with such a finesse on his craft. That’s why he was compared to RGV’s Shiva for his direction skills (though both are different kind of artists). It’s the nitty gritty emotional details that made Sandeep stand-out. Pretty sure he had done his market research before the final-cut because most of Preeti’s story was never shown but it’s not as if she never had any story. It looked like there was a backstory written for Preeti and their family but it was just skipped (since the movie was not targetted towards female audience from day one).
But the most under appreciated artist in AR is the Music director Radhan, he almost gave cult music and then became a forgotten hero (Hindi version used his BGMs). Really miss that guy in mainstream cinema.
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brangan
August 28, 2020
Aman Basha: See the promo comments…
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Aman Basha
August 28, 2020
@brangan sir: Nope couldn’t find anything in YouTube.
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Ex. Voldemort
August 28, 2020
BR: “And I get comments like “stop glorifying Tamil filmmakers all the time” and “there are many great Telugu directors like K Viswanath”
But aren’t you the one who glorifies Hollywood filmmakers and trashes Tamil directors? 🙂
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Rahini David
August 28, 2020
Aman Basha: Search for “dumeel” in that promo video.
BR: Seriously BR, that thread was overwhelmingly positive. That was obviously a troll comment. At least a small percentage is going to be troll comments anyway, no?
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Honest Raj
August 28, 2020
I was actually reminded of this comment:
https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/lights-camera-conversation-four-decades-later-a-flashback/#comment-41493
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Satya
August 28, 2020
His work in Arjun Reddy was compared with what RGV did in Shiva, though both are different enough as ‘stories’. But, man, if he kept that rainfight, I would have been reminded of the one in Shiva.
Nevertheless, I always think that part of the flashbacks would have been his drug fuelled fantasies. One of many alternatives he can tell himself every night pitying himself. But then, it is just a way to look at this film. I know people like AR in real-life and trust me, none of those had a fitting closure. Because, like SRV says here, middle class folks’ guidance and advices are very different in tone and approach.
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Isai
August 29, 2020
“Seriously BR, that thread was overwhelmingly positive. That was obviously a troll comment. At least a small percentage is going to be troll comments anyway, no?”
Usually it wouldn’t have mattered. Suppose, BR was feeling bad about the LR interview since some people accused him of giving undue importance to her/her show only because of her caste. So, he may have wanted to show people that he doesn’t discriminate or even differentiate people on the basis of caste or religion. Hence, when he compared Sandeep Reddy, a 1-original-film old filmmaker whom he really likes, with a legendary ‘brahmin’ director K Balachander, he was perhaps hoping that people will realise that he doesn’t differentiate people on the basis of caste. But, I believe his karma backfired and he now got accused of discriminating filmmakers on the basis of language! I think that’s why he got frustrated.
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