Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Still from Kabir Singh

Kabir Singh director Sandeep Vanga Reddy has broken his silence on the TikTok villain who was inspired by the movie and went on a murdering spree, later killing himself too. Apart from updating Shahid's images from the film, the man in question also used to mouth dialogues like "Jo mera nahi ho sakta, use kisi aur ke hone ka mauka nahi doonga."

Expressing regret over the case, the director has stated that neither his films nor his characters supported murder. He added, that whether it was the character of Arjun Reddy or the character of Kabir Singh, they both harmed themselves more than they would to others.

"I feel sorry for the girl and her family. It is unfortunate that people have lost their lives. As filmmakers, we are responsible for our craft and need to consider the repercussions, but never have my films [endorsed] killing anyone. Kabir Singh or even Arjun Reddy never [supported] murder," Sandeep told Mid Day.

"The man in question seems to have some psychological issue. Such people often look up to Bollywood celebrities, sportspersons or politicians. If you see Shahid's character in the film, he is a self-destructive person who is harming himself more than anyone else," he added.

The film had received massive applause but immense backlash too for its sexist content. Talking about Hindi film critics, Sandeep Reddy said, "I also faced a lot of criticism for my Telugu film, but I have enjoyed it. The reason is that they were criticizing too many aspects of my movie, but here they were only on the feminist side. Here they did not speak anything else."

Ashwani Kashyap, who was also known as 'Johnny Dada' seemed heavily inspired by Shahid Kapoor's character in Kabir Singh. Released in the theatres on June 21, Kabir Singh made a massive amount at the box office.