Recently, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga took to Twitter commending the alleged rape and murder of a veterinarian doctor in Hyderabad. In his tweet, the Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh director called for ‘brutal sentencing’ of the perpetrators.  

Responding to Sandeep’s tweet, filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane wrote, 

This was in reference to Sandeep’s past statements defending a scene from Kabir Singh. In the film, Shahid Kapoor’s character is seen slapping his girlfriend, played by Kiara Advani. In an interview after the release of the film, Sandeep had defended the gesture as an expression of ‘honest’ love. 

“When you are deeply in love and deeply connected to a woman, and vice versa, there’s a lot of honesty in it. if you don’t have the liberty of slapping each other, then I don’t see anything there,” he had said. 

Sandeep’s tweet was also blasted by singer Sona Mohapatra, who criticised him for promoting sexist and violent behaviour against women.