Sandeep Reddy Vanga hits out at IAS officer for criticising Animal: ‘No course can make you a filmmaker’

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, in a recent interview, hit out at an IAS officer for criticising his 2023 film Animal. Sandeep said that one can crack the civil services exam by enrolling themselves in coaching institutes but “no course or teacher can make you a filmmaker or writer.”

Although Sandeep didn’t name the officer, to give context, in a previous interview IAS officer Vikas Divyakirti had criticised Animal and said “A film like Animal takes our society back by 10 years. A film like this should not be made. You earned money. You showed that your hero behaves like an animal. There should be some social value, or are people working only for financial value?”

Sandeep, while speaking to journalist Komal Nahta on his podcast said, “An IAS officer, in an interview, said that movies like Animal shouldn’t be made. He sounded like I committed some crime by making that movie.”

“He said, ‘On one hand, we are making movies like 12th Fail and on the other, films like Animal are making the society regressive.’ If somebody attacks you unnecessarily, you will get angry. He is an IAS officer who must have studied hard and reached where he is. However, if you go to Delhi, get enrolled in an institute and give 2-3 years of your life, you can crack IAS. But, I can give you in writing that there’s no course or teacher that can make you a filmmaker or writer,” he added.

On the film front, Sandeep is currently working on Spirit, his next with Prabhas. Animal Park, the sequel to Animal, is also in the pipeline.s