Arjun Reddy

After discontinuing his studies as a physiotherapist, Sandeep Vanga worked in the 2010 Telugu film Kedi as an assistant director.[1][6] He worked on the script of Arjun Reddy for two years and for four to five years approached producers who were not willing to finance the project until Vanga's brother Pranay Reddy agreed to do so.[1] Pranay and Vanga's father invested in the film equally. The project was made under the production banner of Bhadrakali Pictures.[6][7]

Arjun Reddy was partially inspired from Vanga's life as a physiotherapy student: "It is not my story but there are a lot of references from my life [...] Some of my medical college friends saw the film and said that Arjun reminds them of me."[1] After working on a scene, he used to wait for a week as he believed that for a film with twists and turns, the narrative would have a chance to jump, thereby giving scope for cinematic liberties. For the same, whenever the idea for a plot twist came to him, Vanga used to work on it for three to four weeks.[6]

In a September 2017 interview with Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu, Vanga said he believed that Telugu cinema uses dialects spoken in Guntur and Vijayawada. Since he was unaware of the way of speaking in both the places, he wrote the dialogue in a Hyderabad Telangana accent.[3] He made use of words that were rarely spoken in colloquial Telugu like yaralu (sister-in-law) to make Arjun look "real and rooted".[8] Some of the dialogue was written in Tulu.[9] With a dark mood prevailing for 100 minutes, Vanga wanted a happy ending for the film, with two or three options for the climax. He said he "didn't have the heart" to end the narrative on a sad note, considering the darkness Arjun was subjected to.[1] The initial edit was 220 minutes long; this was reduced to 186 minutes.[1]

Vanga initially approached Sharwanand to play the film's lead role.[10] Sharwanand was at first apprehensive of Vanga handling the responsibilities of directing and producing the project but after reading the script, he changed his mind. He sent the script to many producers, who considered the project too risky to fund.[6][11] After Sharwanand left the project, Vanga signed Vijay Deverakonda to play Arjun Reddy. Deverakonda's breakthrough film Pelli Choopulu (2016) had not yet been released, and many were against Vanga for casting him, citing it a risky move for a home production.[12] In an interview with Indo-Asian News Service, Devarakonda called the portrayal of Arjun Reddy exhausting, noting that, "I had to be constantly probing into the darkest areas of my consciousness, digging out feelings and tapping into emotions I had never touched in myself".[13] He did not have any cinematic references but watched films like The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983) and Goodfellas (1990) to remain in an alpha male zone.[8]

Arjun and Preethi had an age difference of four years, which Vanga wanted to showcase effectively. He chose Shalini Pandey to play Preethi; she was pursuing a career in theatre in Jabalpur.[6] Pandey's father was apprehensive of her signing a film contract; the shoot delayed by five months. Pandey was firm in her decision, which strained her relationship with her father.[14] Vanga wanted her to dub for her role, to which she agreed because it would help her own the character completely.[15] Vanga conducted an eight-day acting workshop with Deverakonda and Pandey.[5] Kanchana was cast as Arjun's grandmother in November 2016; Arjun Reddy marked her comeback to Telugu cinema after Shri Datta Darshanam (1985). The producers persuaded her to join the project after a series of long discussions.[16]

Rahul Ramakrishna, who worked as a lyricist for Pelli Choopulu, was cast as Arjun's friend Shiva. Ramakrishna's career as a journalist helped him understand several dialects, which in turn had a positive effect on his performance.[17] He called Shiva's friendship with Arjun "loyal and unconditional", which gives them the liberty to deride each other at times.[18] Amit Sharma was chosen after a three-hour audition; Vanga felt he "had the apt attitude and arrogance" for the role of Amit, Arjun's nemesis.[19] Bhushan Kalyan played the role of the college's dean.[20] Tulu actor Gopinath Bhat was cast as Preethi's father.[9] Sanjay Swaroop, Kamal Kamaraju, Jia Sharma and Priyadarshi Pulikonda were cast in other important roles.[21]

Nagesh Banell was initially the film's director of photography.[22] He was replaced by Raj Thota later, who worked for 85% of the film.[6] Deverakonda recommended him; he did the clash work for Pelli Choopulu whose cinematography was handled by Banell.[lower-alpha 2][23][24] Vanga worked on the film's sound design and worked with Sachin Hariharan of Sync Cinema.[6] Harshavardhan Rameshwar composed the background score.[25] Shashank Mali edited the film.[26]

Principal photography commenced in Hyderabad on 20 June 2016.[27] Kanchana joined the film's sets on 30 November 2016.[16] The protagonists' college life portions were filmed at the three heritage buildings of the University college of Hampankatta, Mangalore.[28] Other filming locations included Dehradun and Delhi in India and parts of Italy.[7] According to Deverakonda, Vanga wanted to set the film in a coastal city and chose Mangalore—mirroring his student life in Dharwad—and stayed there for ten days to finalise the locations.[29] In an interview with Idlebrain.com, Vanga said, "When you write a script, you think about a particular location. But, it scared me when we got worst of locations for some of the scenes. But it didn't matter because our attention would be on characters. I realised that when content is clear, locations doesn't matter most of the times."[6]

The principal photography was completed in 86 working days,[3] and was made on a budget of ₹40–51.5 million.[lower-alpha 1] Vanga preferred long, uninterrupted takes; the pre-Intermission sequence was seven minutes long. According to Deverakonda, if filmed in conventional style, Vanga would have finished the film in 200 working days.[25] For a few scenes, Thota used a hand-held camera weighing 25 kilograms (55 lb), which adversely affected his hands.[23] The classroom fight scene featuring Deverakonda, Pandey and Sharma was filmed in a single take; Sharma wanted Deverakonda to actually hit him to make the scene look natural. He said their experience in theatre helped their performances.[19] The crew wanted to film the intermission scene, in which Arjun urinates in his pants, authentically but a delay in the shoot led to the insertion of a medical hosepipe in Deverakonda's trousers.[30]

Arjun Reddy opened to a 100% occupancy in some areas of India, including districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.[61] At the United States box office, the film debuted with earnings of US$194,051 from its premieres and of US$709,347 in two days.[62] By the end of its first weekend, it grossed US$954,677 in the US,[63] and A$111,521 in Australia. Arjun Reddy grossed ₹190 million globally, with a distributor share of ₹104.2 million in its first weekend. The film was declared commercially successful as it earned a profit of 73.66% for its distributors.[64] Arjun Reddy's earnings exceeded US$1 million on its fourth day of theatrical release in the US, becoming the 32nd Indian Telugu-language film to do so.[65]

By the end of its first week, the film grossed ₹343 million and a distributor share of ₹185 million, providing a return of nearly 200% to its distributors.[66] After earning US$1,681,996 in 17 days in the US, Arjun Reddy became the fourth highest grossing Telugu film of the year in that country.[67] By then, it had grossed a worldwide total of ₹450 million and a distributor share of ₹250 million.[68] In its complete global theatrical run, Arjun Reddy grossed a total of ₹510 million and earned a distributor share of ₹260 million.[4]

Arjun Reddy received positive reviews from critics.[69] Writing for Film Companion, Baradwaj Rangan said that while the pre-interval sequences were generic, the "prickly" latter portions justified both the film's title and the running time. Rangan called Arjun Reddy a film that "digs deep [and] rings true" and said it "really comes into its own" in the second half.[70] S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu wrote that Vanga's storytelling had a "conviction and confidence probably only a debutante will have". He found the performances, especially those of Deverakonda and Kanchana, "pitch perfect".[71] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo said the film is "too raw and real to be absolutely fictional" and commented: "Hours after watching Arjun Reddy, it’s hard to shake off its effect. It’s like a hangover, albeit in a good way."[41]

Indo-Asian News Service gave the film five stars out of five, called it the "most original, experimental and daring work to come out Telugu cinema in a long time", and said the protagonist's "rise, fall and rise ... is nothing short of poetic and heart wrenching".[72] Neeshita Nyayapati gave the film four stars out of five and commented: "With Arjun Reddy, Sandeep Vanga has managed to tell a story that is seldom told, without sleaze or cheesy lines or [over the top] drama".[42] Srivatsan of India Today also gave the film four stars out of five and wrote: "Lo and behold, Arjun Reddy—the film and Vijay Deverakonda, is something that the Telugu industry deserved in the first place", and praised the "brutal and honest" filmmaking.[73] Suresh Kavirayani of Deccan Chronicle also gave the film four stars out of five and commended the performances and the filmmaking but was apprehensive of the second half's pace.[74] The Times of India, also gave four stars stating "Arjun Reddy is the dawn of a new era of films for the Telugu film industry."[75]

Hemanth Kumar, in his review for Firstpost, gave 3.75 stars out of five and praised the storytelling in particular, saying: "There are no gimmicks, no surprises, no twists. And in doing so, we are forced to absorb the film at a more personal and subconscious level."[76] Latha Srinivasan, in her review for NewsX, wrote that the protagonist is "unconventional, free-spirited and tries to break the shackles of traditional societal norms". She said the romance is "rooted in deep emotions" and gave the film 3.5 stars out of five.[77] Giving three stars out of five, K. Naresh Kumar of The Hans India was critical of the film's pace and a few subplots in the second half. He wrote: "As a tale of a love-struck man, who falters and finally figures out what is best for him, the experiment that the director undertakes is tedious, stretching out time and again".[78] Murali Krishna CH, in his review for the Cinema Express, praised the unpredictability of the first half but was apprehensive of some emotional scenes in the second half; he found them a "serious flaw" after the intermission.[79]

The film has also drawn criticism for its misogyny and glorification of toxic masculinity. Sowmya Rajendran, in her review for The News Minute, panned its "utterly colourless" female characters and validation of abusive behaviour, writing: "The film treats women as property, to be under the protection and control of men ... [it] will have us believe that women have no opinions about anything that happens to them or around them."[80] Malini Raghu of Deccan Herald concurred, stating: "portraying [Reddy] as just a wounded and short-tempered but affectionate boy is not acceptable to many [...] The female lead's gullibility is annoying, especially to women. All she does is keep mum and boost her man's ego."[81] Vishnupriya Bhandaram of Firstpost found the film's depiction of misbehavior as an alpha male attribute to be "deeply problematic",[82] while Sify's Ashley Tellis classified it as "part of the culture of misogyny that has always existed in Telugu (and Tamil and all Indian film cultures)."[83] Speaking to The Asian Age, Neelima Menon opined that "it's problematic when you add celebratory background score to an act of verbally abusing a woman with sexually coloured remarks, or beating her up, or decide to make these acts sound heroic."[84] Writing for Mashable, Pramit Chatterjee summed up the film as "the flag-bearer of 21st-century toxic masculinity".[85]

In 2019, actress Parvathy criticised Arjun Reddy at a roundtable organised by Film Companion for glorifying misogyny, abuse and toxic masculinity in the films at International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Her comments against Arjun Reddy were met with widespread appreciation and many noted that she was brave enough to address the issue in front of Deverakonda.[86] Later, Deverakonda criticised social media trollers during an interview for blowing the issue out of proportion while simultaneously emphasising on how much he respected Parvathy and her work.[87]