Mumbai: Deepika Padukone’s reported exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Spirit’ sparked a major controversy, with the filmmaker making allegations on social media and the industry debating artistes’ working hours.
However, according to a Hindustan Times report, Deepika met Vanga only once and was never given a complete narration of the Prabhas-starrer.
The controversy resurfaced this week after Pranay, Sandeep’s brother, claimed that Deepika’s demand for a profit share was one of the reasons behind her exit from Spirit.
However, a source close to the development disputed the claim and said that Deepika ultimately never considered doing the film.
“Deepika Padukone has met Sandeep Reddy Vanga all of once in her life. Not to mention, the filmmaker arrived a whole hour late to the meeting! Deepika took the rest of the meeting professionally. In the meeting, only a one-liner of the film was shared. She didn’t receive a full narration of the film. Deepika never commits to a project without receiving a full narration. So, Spirit was never a part of Deepika’s consideration set to begin with,” a source was quoted as saying by HT.
The source further claimed, “Sandeep Reddy Vanga is the kind of filmmaker Deepika Padukone would never collaborate with, given his misogynist nature: one that is greatly evident not only in his off-screen persona but in his movies too.”
For the unversed, in an interview with NTV Telugu, Pranay had said, “The reason is the same as what was already mentioned. One was remuneration, the second was timing. Apart from that, there are some other reasons, too. Soon after, everything went overboard. See, she can ask for anything. If we are willing to give, we can give. But the economics should also work out for us. We thought that it was not working. This is why we thought of other options. Once we started looking for other options, they started leaking everything.”
Deepika was reportedly in talks with Sandeep for his Prabhas-starrer ‘Spirit’ last year. However, it emerged in April that the actor had exited the project.
According to reports, Deepika had asked for a fixed eight-hour workday as a new mother, but the production team did not agree to her demand.
Around the same time, the makers of ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ announced her exit from its sequel in a post on X.
The developments sparked a wider debate online over professionalism, working-hour limits and remuneration in big-budget films.