Buoyed by success of Arjun Reddy, makers plan to add 40 mins of footage back to film

The phenomenal Telugu hit, Arjun Reddy, which is unanimously being hailed as a game-changer, not only for Telugu cinema, but Indian cinema per se, is about to get bigger, literally. Post the film’s success, director Sandeep Vanga intends to restore some of the relinquished footage in the narrative, which already stands at a staggering 182 minutes.

Apparently, there was pre-release pressure on the team to cut down the length of the action-drama as a three-hour product was not believed to be multiplex-friendly. 

“So in principle, we’re planning to add to, and not subtract from, the film’s length. We had to sacrifice about 40 minutes of footage on the editing table. Believe me, every moment of what we shot was vital to the story. Every frame that we left out was a bit of our lives abandoned for the sake of a tighter narrative,” says Vijay Deverakonda.”

“Since the audience has accepted the entire film and its unusual playing time, we are enthused into putting back the moments that we had to wrench out for the sake of the narrative economy. So yes, in principle we are doing a director’s cut of Arjun Reddy so soon after the release because we believe what was left out is important to Arjun Reddy’s story,” he adds.