Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga took to X on Thursday and gave a sharp retort to actor Adil Hussain’s comments against his directorial Kabir Singh (2019). The actor had a brief role in the film where he plays the titular character Kabir’s (Shahid Kapoor) teacher. Recently on a podcast Adil had expressed that he regrets doing the film. Sandeep shared a clip of the podcast and tweeted that he regrets casting the veteran actor and that he will be replacing his face in the film “with AI help.”
On the AP podcast, Adil said, “The only film I regretted acting in was Kabir Singh.” Talking about how he became a part of the film, the actor said that initially he was putting away doing the role and even asked his manager to ask for an exorbitant amount of fees so that the producers themselves would refuse. “But they agreed, so I went and did it,” he said. “And I like the scene I did, it’s a good scene, so I thought the film is also going to be good. Then I go to watch the film and I am like what am I doing here? I was so embarrassed.” When the podcaster asks him what was his family’s reaction to the movie, the actor says, “I can’t even ask my wife to see it. She will be so angry.”
Sandeep, who made his Hindi directorial debut with Kabir Singh, reacted to the clip and tweeted, “Ur 'belief' in 30 art films didn't get as much fame to u as ur 'regret' of 1 BLOCKBUSTER film did.”
“I regret casting u, knwing that ur greed is bigger than ur passion. NOW I'll save U from the shame by replacing Ur face with AI help Now smile properly,” he added.
Sandeep is known to not take any criticism lightly. Recently, when acclaimed lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar took a jibe on the shoe-licking scene in the director’s Animal, the film’s official X account responded by saying. “Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE' (sic).”
The director often goes after critics who lament his films. Kabir Singh was called out for its misogyny. The film also stars Kiara Advani.