Sandeep Vanga vs Sekhar Kammula: Two Different Styles of Lover Boys

Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s recent comments about Sekhar Kammula’s heroes have sparked a discussion on social media. Speaking at an event, Vanga openly said that he does not like the heroes in Kammula’s films. While it was clearly his personal opinion, the remark quickly drew reactions from Kammula’s supporters, who began comparing the two filmmakers’ approaches to hero characters.

Rather than debating Vanga’s opinion alone, social media users started examining the kind of protagonists both directors have created over the years. Kammula has introduced heroes with different personalities and backgrounds in films such as Anand, Godavari, Happy Days, Leader, Fidaa and Love Story. His protagonists are generally portrayed as decent, relatable and emotionally restrained characters.

Producer Lagadapati Sridhar believes the two filmmakers belong to completely different schools of filmmaking and have their own audiences. “They both belong to different schools of filmmaking and have their own set of fan bases,” he says.

According to Sridhar, Kammula’s heroes are usually soft, decent and accommodative, which helped them strike a chord with Telugu audiences. He also believes Kammula has developed a strong reputation for handling love stories with sensitivity, focusing on relatable conflicts and restrained characterisation.

Vanga, in contrast, has built his films around a very different kind of protagonist. His heroes are often aggressive, intense and dominant, with characters who openly express their emotions and do not necessarily conform to conventional ideas of romance or behaviour. Films such as Arjun Reddy, Kabir Singh and Animal have established this distinctive hero template.

“Sandeep Reddy presents alpha males as aggressive characters who do not hesitate to speak their minds, irrespective of how others perceive them. Even his love stories showcase heroes in an intense and aggressive manner. His expression of love is straightforward and comes without many boundaries,” Sridhar says.

He adds that while Kammula generally presents good-hearted and restrained heroes in boy next door avatars, Vanga’s protagonists tend to be grey, darker and unpredictable.