- Arjun Reddy is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Sandeep Vanga, and produced by his brother Pranay Reddy Vanga’s company Bhadrakali Pictures. It stars Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey in the lead roles, and Rahul Ramakrishna, Jia Sharma, Sanjay Swaroop, Gopinath Bhat, Kamal Kamaraju and Kanchana in supporting roles. The film tells the story of Arjun Reddy Deshmukh (Deverakonda), a high-functioning alcoholic surgeon who has 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 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.
The film was made on a budget of ₹40–51.5 million; it was released worldwide on 25 August 2017 after receiving an ‘A’ (adult) certification from India’s Central Board of Film Certification. Post-release, the film received positive reviews for its direction, writing, cinematography and the cast’s performances—especially that of Deverakonda. It drew criticism for allegedly promoting substance abuse among young people and for its romantic scenes. The film was a box office success, grossing ₹510 million globally, with a distributor share of ₹260 million. It went on to receive six nominations at the 65th Filmfare Awards South, including Best Telugu Film, Best Telugu Director for Sandeep Vanga and Best Telugu Actor for Deverakonda, the film’s only win at the ceremony. In 2019, it was remade in Hindi as Kabir Singh and in Tamil as Adithya Varma.