Congratulating actor Vijay on making a staggering political debut, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga wrote that cinema can move people. "This is what CINEMA can do, it can move people, shake systems, and turn presence into POWER. Here CINEMA stepping off the screen and owning the ground. Not hype. Not noise. Real power," the director, who is currently making Prabhas' Spirit, wrote on X.
His post has invited a new bout of analysis from his critics. The sum and substance of their argument is this: "When Arjun Reddy/Kabir Singh and Animal were released, you blamed film critics for precisely saying what you are now saying about the power of cinema."
To be fair to Vanga, he never opined that cinema doesn't influence the audience. This was the argument of his industry colleagues. This idea was expressed by others (like Ram Gopal Varma and Vikram Bhatt) while defending his film Animal, with arguments such as "society influences movies, not the other way around" or "movies don't change society."
That said, the latest post by Vanga is a Freudian Slip. Previously, he defended his films as artistic expression, not educational tools or moral guides. Deep down, he knows that cinema can influence the audience. Yes, his protagonists are flawed. But they are glorified through a rousing score every time.
