Ranbir Kapoor’s film with Sandeep Vanga titled Devil, was reportedly rejected by Mahesh Babu for being too dark

Actor Ranbir Kapoor’s upcoming film with Kabir Singh director Sandeep Reddy Vanga is reportedly titled Devil. The film is reportedly a dark thriller that was initially offered to Mahesh Babu, who turned down the offer.

Bollywood Hungama quoted a source as saying, “Sandeep Vanga was very keen to work with Mahesh Babu and Mahesh too was interested in working with Vanga. They met and Vanga narrated Devil to Mahesh Babu who found the subject too dark for his taste and for his audience’s taste.”

Vanga has experience dealing with dark characters. His only two films are Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh -- both films were about an alcoholic with anger issues. Kabir Singh in particular received widespread backlash for glorifying reckless behaviour. Actor Shahid Kapoor described the character as his darkest yet. Similarly, Devil will reportedly be the darkest character of Ranbir’s career.

Mumbai Mirror previously quoted a source as saying, “Ranbir has liked the concept and they will be meeting this week to discuss it further. Of course, even if Ranbir gives the nod, they will not be able to roll immediately because he has to wrap up two films, Brahmastra and Shamshera, first and is committed to a third, Luv Ranjan’s next with Ajay (Devgn), which is being produced by Luv and Bhushan (Kumar, producer).”

Despite the poor reviews, Kabir Singh was a box office success, raking in over ₹270 crore, making it the highest grossing Bollywood film of 2019. Vanga isn’t the only controversial director Ranbir has associated himself with. He has signed on to appear in Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety filmmaker Luv Ranjan’s next film. Ranjan was accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous woman during the #MeToo movement in 2018; his films have been accused of being misogynistic.

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