Vijay Deverakonda starrer ‘Arjun Reddy’ is one of the most loved films in Indian cinema. The 2017 film starring the actor along with Shalini Pandey was also remade in Hindi as ‘Kabir Singh’ in 2019. It starred Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani in lead roles. However, both ‘Arjun Reddy’ and ‘Kabir Singh’ were criticised for promoting toxic masculinity and normalising violence. Specifically, women across India said that most women would not tolerate such violence in romantic relationships.?

Now, Ananya Panday, who is all set to star opposite Vijay Deverakonda in the upcoming film ‘Liger’, which marks Vijay’s Bollywood debut, opened up about her views on ‘Arjun Reddy’. It happened when the two stars were guests on Karan Johar’s popular talk show ‘Koffee With Karan’. Ananya said that she has not seen women who would tolerate all that and social media users praised her? mature response to ‘Arjun Reddy’.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Vijay has now said that he is ‘proud’ of Ananya speaking her mind. He said, “I didn’t know what was happening. She mentioned that people seem to like her take, her very honest opinion on the film while I was next to her. But then, she is comfortable talking and I am really open to opinions. I love listening to people’s opinions. I don’t disregard anybody. If you feel this way, good. There must be a reason you feel this way. I may not agree with you or see both sides of the coin but I am glad she spoke what she thought.”

Ananya, on the other hand, said that she could give a contrary opinion because she knew her ‘Liger’ co-star wouldn’t get offended. “It never even crossed my mind that Vijay would take offence to it because he is not really that kind of a person. I feel that I can share any sort of opinion in front of him and he has been very open to all of it. So I never felt he would have a problem with it,” she said.

Meanwhile, their film ‘Liger’ will be released on August 25. Directed by Puri Jaggannadh, it also stars boxing champion Mike Tyson, along with Ramya Krishnan, Makarand Deshpande, and Ramya Krishnan.