Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s latest praise for Dhurandhar has reignited an older controversy, and this time social media users are drawing a sharp contrast with Siddharth Anand. After Vanga applauded Aditya Dhar’s film and hailed its “masculine spine,” several netizens brought back his “khundak mein billi khamba noche” remark, the Hindi idiom from his 2025 public post during the Spirit casting fallout that was widely read as a swipe at Deepika Padukone.
The backlash online has not been limited to that phrase alone. Many users are now contrasting Vanga’s public tone with Anand’s more measured image in the industry, especially because Anand had also wished Dhurandhar well without triggering the same kind of debate. That contrast has now become the centre of the conversation, pushing Vanga back into scrutiny while giving Anand an unexpected reputational boost.
Dhurandhar Praise Reopens Old Wounds
In December 2025, Vanga posted on X that Dhurandhar was “built like a man who doesn’t talk much & carries a masculine spine,” adding that the film “moves with dominance & fierce.” Director Aditya Dhar responded warmly, thanking him and saying, “Coming from you, this means a great deal.”
Also what fuelled the controversy that Sandeep Reddy Vanga openly slammed Deepika for option out of Spirit and doing a PR around it. He went ahead and called her “Khundakki Billi”.
What also really agitated netizens is the opportunistic timing of Sandeep’s praise for Dhurandhar. He chose to praise it when it has become a global phenomenon but on contrary Siddharth Anand praised the film and wished makers even before release of the film.
Netizens React To Tone And Timing Of Sandeep’s Praise For Dhurandhar
One user wrote, “Before Dhurandhar release, absolute silence from Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Not a single word, no hype, no support.
After it becomes a hit , suddenly he’s the brand ambassador, preaching about “Bollywood not supporting good cinema” 😭
Peak opportunism.
Meanwhile, Sid Anand was backing the film right from the announcement phase , no noise, just genuine support. That’s the difference between standing with a project vs jumping on the success bandwagon.
Bollywood didn’t mock Dhurandhar, people like Vanga just waited to see numbers before choosing a side.”
Other user wrote, “Irony died a thousand deaths seeing the ‘Alpha’ of toxic cinema lecture us on propaganda. You talk about cats staying quiet, but your entire filmography is a loud, vibrating siren for insecurity.
Calling Dhurandhar 2 ‘truth’ is like calling Animal a family drama, it’s a delusional stretch. You say a handful of red chilies won’t work and the whole field needs to be burnt? Typical Vanga logic: if you can’t win an argument with craft, just resort to arson and hyper-masculinity.
The ‘same clan’ isn’t mocking the film; they’re mocking the fact that you think screaming ‘Desh-Bhakti’ from the rooftops excuses a hollow screenplay. If ‘Liberalism’ means not bowing down to every loud-mouthed director with a savior complex, then call us whatever you want. But maybe focus on your own ‘Spirit’ before trying to set the industry on fire.”
That praise, however, has now been reframed by online users through the lens of the Spirit controversy. In May 2025, Vanga had posted a blistering message about an unnamed actress, writing, “Putting down a younger actor and ousting my story? Is this what your feminism stands for?” He ended it with the idiom that sparked intense discussion, which many online interpreted as a dig at Deepika after her exit from Spirit. Triptii Dimri was later announced for the film.
As the old remark circulates again, the debate has shifted beyond one post and into a larger conversation about public conduct, ego, and how filmmakers handle high-profile fallouts. That is precisely where Siddharth Anand has emerged as the contrasting figure in the current social media narrative.
Why Siddharth Anand Is Winning This Optics Battle
What is helping Anand in this comparison is not a direct rebuttal, but the image he has built through his work and public persona. Over the past few years, he has remained closely associated with star-led action spectacles like Pathaan in 2023 and Fighter in 2024, films that kept him firmly positioned as one of Hindi cinema’s most visible mainstream directors. With King now confirmed as his next theatrical project with Shah Rukh Khan, Anand continues to project the kind of industry stability that social media users are reading as confidence rather than confrontation.
In all the above films, he worked with Deepika Padukone and never had any issue with 8 hour shift thing contrary to what transpired between Deepika and Sandeep Reddy Vanga.
That is why the current comparison has stuck. In the middle of a debate revived by Vanga’s own words, Anand is being framed online as the filmmaker who cheered a peer’s film, stayed on message, and let his body of work speak for itself. For many netizens, that difference in tone has become the real story around Dhurandhar’s online fanfare.
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