Responding to a question, Vijay said that he had asked Mandanna to ask him for marriage a 100 times before agreeing. If he was trying to say that he didn’t believe in marriage, and that he wanted to see if it was something he believed in, then I could understand that. But as everyone called out, it’s a red flag. Just a weird thing to share on a talk show.
There’s another peculiar moment in the episode. Karan Johar asked Mandanna to define their relationship, and she does: “This is what love looks like.” Vijay glares at her with wide eyes, as if he were warning her.
The dictator-loving actor
Let’s also remember that this is the same guy who, in the past, has said that he does not believe in democracy and that dictatorship is the . In an interview with Anupama Chopra and Baradwaj Rangan, he brainlessly said that having an authoritarian system is the “right way” but that we need to have a “good guy” for it.
Sorry, Vijay, a dictator is certainly not a good guy.
It seems like the actor has not changed much or grown since 2020. I’m not interested in his personal life with his wife, god bless the couple, but it is high time that this generation of Tollywood male actors grow up and break the cycle of casual sexism.
Oddly enough, people who know him had a very different thing to say about him.
“Oldest actors are far more sexist and get away with a lot more in general. Vijay, I have known personally, and he is very mindful in person. So his onscreen persona is rather surprising,” said an actor I have known for a while, on Vijay’s comments.
It is also because of the sexism that I stayed away from watching Deverakonda’s movie Arjun Reddy (2017), because the teaser was enough to put me off. The toxic masculinity—obsessive behaviour and aggression—portrayed as a symbol of peak male character was problematic on so many levels.
Many to this day, offline and online, say that Deverakonda didn’t have to act, but he was playing himself in that movie. Maybe they have a point. But that was a decade ago. I would assume that maybe things would have changed, at least a little.
Blatant sexism as norm
I have always had a problem with Telugu films portraying harassment as love in movies, which, sadly, seems to have been accepted as a normal part of cinema. If you go through movies in general, women are often relegated to love interests without agency.
But what actors like Deverakonda need to understand is that they set a precedent and influence the men who watch their films. Balakrishna is probably beyond redemption, and other film industries surely have the same problem.
But male Telugu actors have been blatant. Actor Shivaji last year very casually remarked on how women should dress. It drew flak, and he had to apologise, but that mindset is the same that exists in our society here. And when that is repeated in public and on screen, it is taken seriously.
I’m not sure what Deverakonda is thinking, but Rashmika, in response to the public backlash, has said that they are very happy. I’m glad, but would it hurt to actually show that to the public onscreen? Had Devarakonda looked at her with some affection, the entire narrative would have been different.
Deverakonda reminds me of guys from my college who would say similar offensive things about women, or their girlfriends. The sense of entitlement here in my state when it comes to women is just obnoxious. And that is what Deverakonda pretty much has shown in his Koffee with Karan interview. That he is still that same immature kid from college who has not evolved.
Do better, it is 2026 and high time that Tollywood starts to address the casual sexism that is openly flaunted like a trait for all men to have.
