Filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga took a trip down memory lane and recalled how his phone was jammed with messages after the success of Arjun Reddy starring Vijay Deverakonda.

The Animal director was speaking to trade analyst Komal Nahta on his Game Changers Podcast. He spoke about his work and revealed which film became a game-changing moment in his career and how the experience felt like a turning point in his journey as a filmmaker.

Vanga revealed his game-changing film to be Arjun Reddy.

He said, “The teaser was released on February 14, 2017, and that was a game-changing moment for me and Vijay Deverakonda. It was a game-changing day. So, at 7 o’clock, we released the teaser. Vijay and I literally pressed the button together on my laptop.”

The filmmaker added how the teaser itself was a massive hit.

“After 1-2 hours, my phone was jammed with messages. That day, we felt this film was going somewhere. The teaser was a bigger movement than the film itself because we saw the effect of the teaser release was more than expected.”

Arjun Reddy featured Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey in the lead. The film’s success led to remakes in several languages, including the Bollywood hit Kabir Singh, directed by Vanga himself, starring Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani.

Arjun Reddy released in 2017. The film tells the story of Arjun Reddy Deshmukh (Deverakonda), a wealthy high-functioning alcoholic surgeon with anger management problems. Arjun is on a self-destructive path after the marriage of his girlfriend Preethi Shetty (Pandey); the film focuses on his downfall and subsequent resurgence.

Arjun Reddy was partially inspired by Sandeep Vanga’s life as a physiotherapy student. He worked on the script for two years and it took four to five years for the film to materialise.

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