Deepika Padukone’s walkout from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit laid bare Bollywood’s double standards where male egos are indulged, but women demanding equity are branded “difficult”. Industry insiders say the rot runs deep and in the end, women suffer
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; June 1, 2025)
When Deepika Padukone walked out of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit, it exposed the deeply gendered fissures within Bollywood’s power structures. This is an industry where exits by leading men are often romanticised as acts of creative rebellion, like in the case of Salman Khan leaving Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Inshallah.
The narrative surrounding Deepika’s exit was, however, aggressively shaped with slander. From the very first piece itself, she was branded “unprofessional” for asking for strict eight-hour work days, remuneration in the range of Rs 40 crore, an additional fee if the shoot extends beyond the allotted number of days, and a share of profits, which is customary for male stars. Her male co-star Prabhas, reportedly commands a fee ranging between Rs 100 to Rs 200 crore per film.
Deepika was promptly replaced by Triptii Dimri the next day. Dimri made it to national fame for her extended cameo in Vanga’s last film Animal. And then appeared a news report about how a major bone of contention between Padukone and Vanga was the number of “bold” scenes in the movie.
Vanga lashed back with a tweet, “When I narrate a story to an actor, I place 100 per cent faith. There is an unsaid NDA [Non Disclosure Agreement] between us. But by doing this, You’ve ‘DISCLOSED’ the person that you are… Putting down a Younger actor and ousting my story? Is this what your feminism stands for ? As a filmmaker, I put years of hard work behind my craft & for me, filmmaking is everything. You didn’t get it. You won’t get it. You will never get it. Aisa karo… Agli baar poori kahani bolna… kyunki mujhe jarra bhi farak nahi padtha. #dirtyPRgames I like this kahawath very much 🙂 खुंदक में बिल्ली खंबा नोचे!” [an embarrassed person tends to vent their feelings by quarrelling].
Padukone, who was attending a Cartier event in Copenhagen the same day, said in an interview, “I think what keeps me balanced is just being truthful, being authentic. Whenever I am faced with complicated or difficult situations, I listen to my inner voice and make decisions that give me peace. That’s when I feel most in equilibrium.”
What followed thereafter was a battle between Vanga supporters and Deepika stans.
Lawyer and activist Devrupa Rakshit tells us, “Watching this play out in the media has been nothing short of whiplash. This goes far deeper than an industry spat, and is a great case study in how patriarchy punishes women who know their worth, and label them ‘difficult’ or ‘replaceable’ the moment they stop playing nice or demand equity. As soon as a woman, no matter how accomplished, dares to set boundaries or ask for compensation comparable to her male counterparts, the system is very quick to remind her where it thinks she belongs. The rhetoric about whether Deepika is ‘worth Rs 20 crore’ is so hypocritical! Why are we even asking that when we rarely interrogate the sky-high demands of male actors, even when they consistently deliver flops?”
She posted about this on her social media, a post liked by Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor.
Rakshit continues — “The responses to my post were so telling! They made the gender divide painfully clear. For many women, obviously, it resonated deeply, seeing their own experiences of being dismissed for asking for raises, for setting work-hour boundaries, for not overextending themselves just to appear “dedicated” reflected here. On the other hand, a large chunk of men are justifying the hate Deepika is receiving, with arguments like how she’s not a box-office draw, how there are thousands of girls who’d do it for free, or how she should be grateful she’s getting paid at all. There were also comments trying to sidestep the gender issue entirely, by framing it as a purely business decision. We don’t hear these same arguments when male actors charge three to four times more despite flopping repeatedly. At the heart of it is a deep-rooted discomfort with women asserting agency, especially around money and autonomy. This is also why stories like Deepika’s strike such a nerve. If someone with her fame, skill, and track record isn’t ‘allowed’ to ask for better, what hope is there for the rest of us?”
Filmmakers routinely bend over backwards to accommodate male superstars, adjusting shoot schedules, rewriting scripts, and sometimes even shelving projects. Which is why when Rhea Kapoor waited for a year for Kareena Kapoor Khan to make Veere Di Wedding, it made headlines.
One top female producer, speaking on condition of anonymity, says, “The industry has long known that there are certain directors who maintain control through fear and manipulation. But now we’re seeing that actresses like Deepika are no longer willing to trade dignity for screen time. That’s a tectonic shift. And it threatens the old order.”
This kind of shift isn’t new. The subtext of this exit echoes past incidents, like Anushka Sharma’s push for better roles under her production banner or Kareena Kapoor discussing pay parity and lack of insurance for pregnant women on Bollywood sets. The industry’s patriarchal core is met with fierce resistance from women working here now. An image manager at Matrix the company who reps Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, says, “Deepika has made it clear she won’t tolerate creative environments that don’t serve her. Kareena, too, left Yash-starrer Toxic due to monetary disputes with the makers. The ladies are saying that they won’t be tossed around. They know their worth and won’t short-sell.”
This is perhaps why Padukone’s brand emerges stronger post-exit. Industry whispers indicate that several directors have approached her since, and she is on the verge of locking Atlee’s next alongside Allu Arjun, for whom this is the next after the success of Pushpa 2. A male screenwriter comments, “This is the era of image-led storytelling. When an actress becomes symbolic of a larger cultural stance, like not tolerating toxicity, she doesn’t need a hit film to stay relevant. She becomes the story.”
And Vanga? He may ride the wave of attention into a successful release, but his penchant for controversial masculinity may have once seemed audacious, now it risks coming across as repetitive.
A senior publicist believes that this is a classic eyeball-grabbing move by Vanga. “He is playing a long game here. Every time he positions himself as misunderstood or vilified, he strengthens his appeal among a very specific demographic of viewers, mostly young men. And now, he is going after a top actress and accusing her of things like leaking the plot of his film. But nothing about the film is known except the fact that it is a cop thriller.”
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh rubbishes this theory. He says, “When a writer narrates a story, it is meant to be a secret. It’s an unspoken fact. You can’t tell the story. A filmmaker would feel hurt. Even in the 1970s and ’80s, actors would pass on films because of scheduling conflicts. Sholay had multiple casting changes but the story never got leaked. Stars and even directors need to part ways amicably. And no, I don’t believe negativity is publicity because no one wants or benefits from publicity like this.”
Female agency is suffering the most, Kolkata-based sociologist Susmita Bandhopadhyay tells Sunday mid-day. Padukone’s supporters, who made the issue about feminism, gave the issue an ugly turn and worked overtime to run down Triptii, who only took up a new film that someone else was supposed to do.
“Feminism, at its core, is about women pulling each other up. So what’s happening right now is not feminism. It’s a PR show that uses feminists as pawns. What happened to Deepika is unfortunate, but the minute Triptii’s slut-shaming began, it became counter-productive. In the end, it became the classic woman-pitted-against-woman and be it Deepika or Triptii, a woman lost.”