Arjun Reddy is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (in his directorial debut), and produced by his brother Pranay Reddy Vanga's company Bhadrakali Pictures. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey while Rahul Ramakrishna, Jia Sharma, Sanjay Swaroop, Gopinath Bhat, Kamal Kamaraju and Kanchana appear in supporting roles. 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. Principal photography commenced on 20 June 2016 at Hyderabad and took 86 working days to complete. Other filming locations include Mangalore, Dehradun and New Delhi, filming also took place in Italy. Radhan and Harshvardhan Rameshwar composed the soundtrack and score, respectively. Raj Thota was director of photography and Shashank Mali edited the film.
Made on a budget of 5–5.15 crore; the film was released worldwide on 25 August 2017. It received widespread critical acclaim, but drew criticism for its themes of self destruction and substance abuse. The film was also a box office success, grossing 51 crore globally, with a distributor share of 25.5 crore.
It received six nominations at the 65th Filmfare Awards South, including Best Telugu Film and Best Telugu Director for Vanga; the film's only win was Best Telugu Actor for Deverakonda. The film was remade in Hindi as Kabir Singh (2019) and twice in Tamil: as Adithya Varma (2019) and Varmaa (2020).
Plot Arjun Reddy Deshmukh is a brilliant but volatile house surgeon at St. Mary's Medical College in Mangalore. Despite his academic excellence, his severe anger issues and impulsive behaviour earn him a fearsome reputation. After an inter-college football match ends in a violent brawl, the dean demands a public apology or threatens expulsion. Arjun initially chooses to withdraw, but changes his mind after meeting Preethi Shetty, an introverted first-year student. Immediately infatuated, he becomes intensely protective and possessive, managing her academic schedule and shielding her from harassment. Although initially intimidated, Preethi reciprocates his feelings, and they begin a passionate relationship. After earning his MBBS degree, Arjun moves to Mussoorie to study Orthopedic surgery, maintaining a committed long-distance relationship with Preethi for three years.
The relationship collapses when Arjun seeks Preethi's family's approval for marriage. Her father, Devdas Shetty, catches them together and opposes the match because of their cultural differences and Arjun's temperament. Despite his grandmother's advice to remain patient, Arjun gives Preethi six hours to leave her family and join him. When she fails to appear, he consumes a large quantity of sedatives and alcohol and becomes unconscious. During his 36-hour stupor, Preethi's family forces her into an arranged marriage. After waking, Arjun confronts her family violently, leading to his arrest and his subsequent banishment from the family home by his disgraced father, Dhanunjay Reddy.
Arjun's best friend, Shiva, helps him rebuild his life by arranging a private apartment and a position as a senior surgeon at a prominent corporate hospital. Consumed by heartbreak, Arjun develops a severe dependence on alcohol and illicit drugs and engages in casual sexual relationships. Despite his self-destructive lifestyle, his surgical skill remains exceptional, and he becomes the hospital's most prolific and respected surgeon. He begins a physical, transactional relationship with film actress Jia Sharma, but ends it when she develops genuine feelings for him, remaining devoted to Preethi.
Arjun's substance abuse eventually threatens his career when he collapses from intoxication while performing a critical operation. Although the patient survives, a medical inquiry is launched. Arjun refuses to conceal his addiction and admits to his substance abuse, resulting in a five-year suspension of his medical licence and eviction from his apartment. After his grandmother's sudden death, Shiva brings him home. Arjun reconciles with his grieving father, vows to reform, successfully overcomes his addictions, and takes a restorative solo holiday.
After returning to the city sober, Arjun encounters a visibly pregnant Preethi in a park. She explains that she never consummated her forced marriage, left her husband days after the wedding, and spent the intervening months working quietly at a clinic. She reveals that the child is Arjun's. After resolving their painful misunderstandings, they reunite and marry with the full support of Arjun's family. A remorseful Devdas also apologises for his past interference.
Cast
Production Development
After discontinuing his studies as a physiotherapist, Sandeep Vanga worked in the 2010 Telugu film Kedi as an assistant director. He worked on the script of Arjun Reddy for two years and for four to five years approached producers who were not willing to finance the project until Vanga's brother Pranay Reddy agreed to do so. Pranay and Vanga's father invested in the film equally. The project was made under the production banner of Bhadrakali Pictures.
Arjun Reddy was partially inspired from Vanga's life as a physiotherapy student: "It is not my story but there are a lot of references from my life [...] Some of my medical college friends saw the film and said that Arjun reminds them of me." After working on a scene, he used to wait for a week as he believed that for a film with twists and turns, the narrative would have a chance to jump, thereby giving scope for cinematic liberties. For the same, whenever the idea for a plot twist came to him, Vanga used to work on it for three to four weeks.
In a September 2017 interview with Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu, Vanga said he believed that Telugu cinema uses dialects spoken in Guntur and Vijayawada. Since he was unaware of the way of speaking in both the places, he wrote the dialogue in a Hyderabad Telangana accent. He made use of words that were rarely spoken in colloquial Telugu like yaralu (sister-in-law) to make Arjun look "real and rooted". Some of the dialogue was written in Tulu. With a dark mood prevailing for 100 minutes, Vanga wanted a happy ending for the film, with two or three options for the climax. He said he "didn't have the heart" to end the narrative on a sad note, considering the darkness Arjun was subjected to. The initial edit was 220 minutes long; this was reduced to 186 minutes.
Cast and crew Vanga initially approached Sharwanand to play the film's lead role. Sharwanand was at first apprehensive of Vanga handling the responsibilities of directing and producing the project but after reading the script, he changed his mind. He sent the script to many producers, who considered the project too risky to fund. After Sharwanand left the project, Vanga signed Vijay Deverakonda to play Arjun Reddy. Deverakonda's breakthrough film Pelli Choopulu (2016) had not yet been released, and many were against Vanga for casting him, citing it a risky move for a home production. In an interview with Indo-Asian News Service, Devarakonda called the portrayal of Arjun Reddy exhausting, noting that, "I had to be constantly probing into the darkest areas of my consciousness, digging out feelings and tapping into emotions I had never touched in myself". He did not have any cinematic references but watched films like The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983) and Goodfellas (1990) to remain in an alpha male zone.
Arjun and Preethi had an age difference of four years, which Vanga wanted to showcase effectively. He chose Shalini Pandey to play Preethi; she was pursuing a career in theatre in Jabalpur. Pandey's father was apprehensive of her signing a film contract; the shoot delayed by five months. Pandey was firm in her decision, which strained her relationship with her father. Vanga wanted her to dub for her role, to which she agreed because it would help her own the character completely. Vanga conducted an eight-day acting workshop with Deverakonda and Pandey. Kanchana was cast as Arjun's grandmother in November 2016; Arjun Reddy marked her comeback to Telugu cinema after Shri Datta Darshanam (1985). The producers persuaded her to join the project after a series of long discussions.
Rahul Ramakrishna, who worked as a lyricist for Pelli Choopulu, was cast as Arjun's friend Shiva. Ramakrishna's career as a journalist helped him understand several dialects, which in turn had a positive effect on his performance. He called Shiva's friendship with Arjun "loyal and unconditional", which gives them the liberty to deride each other at times. Amit Sharma was chosen after a three-hour audition; Vanga felt he "had the apt attitude and arrogance" for the role of Amit, Arjun's nemesis. Bhushan Kalyan played the role of the college's dean. Tulu actor Gopinath Bhat was cast as Preethi's father. Sanjay Swaroop, Kamal Kamaraju, Jia Sharma and Priyadarshi Pulikonda were cast in other important roles.
Nagesh Banell was initially the film's director of photography. He was replaced by Raj Thota later, who worked for 85% of the film. Deverakonda recommended him; he did the clash work for Pelli Choopulu whose cinematography was handled by Banell. Vanga worked on the film's sound design and worked with Sachin Hariharan of Sync Cinema. Harshavardhan Rameshwar composed the background score. Shashank Mali edited the film.
Filming Principal photography commenced in Hyderabad on 20 June 2016. Kanchana joined the film's sets on 30 November 2016. The protagonists' college life portions were filmed at the three heritage buildings of the university college of Hampankatta, Mangalore. Other filming locations included Dehradun and Delhi in India and parts of Italy. According to Deverakonda, Vanga wanted to set the film in a coastal city and chose Mangalore—mirroring his student life in Dharwad—and stayed there for ten days to finalise the locations. In an interview with Idlebrain.com, Vanga said, "When you write a script, you think about a particular location. But, it scared me when we got worst of locations for some of the scenes. But it didn't matter because our attention would be on characters. I realised that when content is clear, locations doesn't matter most of the times."
The principal photography was completed in 86 working days, and was made on a budget of 5–5.15 crore. Vanga preferred long, uninterrupted takes; the pre-Intermission sequence was seven minutes long. According to Deverakonda, if filmed in conventional style, Vanga would have finished the film in 200 working days. For a few scenes, Thota used a hand-held camera weighing , which adversely affected his hands. The classroom fight scene featuring Deverakonda, Pandey and Sharma was filmed in a single take; Sharma wanted Deverakonda to actually hit him to make the scene look natural. He said their experience in theatre helped their performances. The crew wanted to film the intermission scene, in which Arjun urinates in his pants, authentically but a delay in the shoot led to the insertion of a medical hosepipe in Deverakonda's trousers.
Music