Love Angry in

DDebut director Sandeep Reddy Vanga and actor Vijay Sai Deverakonda have taken the Telugu film industry by storm with Arjun Reddy—a small-budget black comedy that introduces a new version of the angry young man. Deverakonda, 28, who stars in the title role, is suddenly being hailed as the Emraan Hashmi of Telugu cinema thanks to the countless onscreen kisses he delivers over the three-hour boy-meets-girl, boyloses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back-again story. But that’s missing the point.

The character of Arjun Reddy—a brilliant surgeon with a hot temper and utter disregard for everything in the rulebook— is fast becoming a cult figure. His heroic feats include performing successful surgeries while drunk, stuffing chunks of ice into his pants to cool off an erection and losing bladder control after an overdose of morphine. “I actually peed in my pants before the camera,” says Deverakonda.

“The character of Arjun Reddy is bold, and in the process of playing him, I had to tap into a totally different side of myself. Reddy speaks his mind and doesn’t wear a social mask, which I think is what people like about him. Most of us would rather be politically correct than [risk] being ourselves,” he says.

Despite the risqué content, Deverakonda has received (and is still receiving) a vast number of compliments for his performance from Telugu stars, filmmakers and critics. Last heard, Dhanush is keen on remaking the film in Tamil, while Ranveer Singh would love to play Arjun Reddy in a Hindi version of the film.

—Mona Ramavat