Arjun Reddy being compared to Baahubali 2

Vijay Devarakonda and Shalini-starrer Arjun Reddy is an emotional love story set against the backdrop of a medical collage. Director Sandeep Vanga says that the film is presented in a cinematic way with some reality. Calling it a heavy duty cult romance, he says,“The film is an emotional journey of a man called Arjun Reddy. What happens to him after his break up and how he deals with the after effects is the crux of the film.”

The film has a duration of 181 minutes, but Sandeep is unperturbed by its length. “It’s not a rarity that a film has a run-time of over three hours, but we get to see only a few films with such duration these days. I feel one can’t calculate emotion with time.”

Sandeep is also unperturbed with the usage of expletives in the film. “I have penned the dialogues which a common man uses in the outside world. I don’t know why some people are magnifying everything now.”

The film faced issues with the Censor Board as the officials have ordered a few cuts. “We have to oblige the Censor Board. They have taken my creative struggle for granted. In one of the last year releases, a top actress says 'M*******' thrice in a film. If that film was cleared, why the apathy when it comes to Arjun Reddy? When a film like Udta Punjab was denied censor certificate by the CBFC, entire Bollywood supported the team and finally, it saw the light of the day with just one cut. Here, I’m fighting alone.”

He adds, “Post release, I want to write to the Censor Board asking what they had actually taken into consideration before censoring our film. I want to explain to them what a creative struggle will be like.”

The film’s posters depicting an intense lip-lock have stirred controversy. Responding to that, Sandeep says, “We released the poster 10 days ago. Why create a scene now? It’s not a democratic way and I don’t understand why political leaders go out of their way and tear the posters. It’s my debut film and my father and brother produced it. I feel industry people have become soft targets. I can assure you that I didn’t put anyone down.”

Arjun Reddy will have 55 premier shows ahead of its release on Thursday night in Hyderabad and the distributors are comparing the film with Baahubali: The Conclusion which had 33 premieres. “The openings are phenomenal and it feels good when distributors say such nice things. We are confident of the film’s success and hence we are screening it hours before the scheduled release.”