It has been over a year since Deepika Padukone walked out of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit, but the controversy around it refuses to die down. Deepika’s exit and the reported reasons around it had generated significant buzz at the time, and the issue came into the limelight this week once again after director Vanga’s brother claimed the real reason for Deepika’s exit was the production’s refusal to heed her 10% profit share demand. Following this, a social media post called out the two Vanga brothers for their statements, and it drew support from Deepika herself.
Deepika Padukone showed her support for the post by liking it. By Saturday morning, the post had over 8k likes in 12 hours, along with close to 2K reposts and shares, showing support from a lot of Deepika fans.
Deepika had left Spirit last year, with reports claiming she could not come to terms with the production’s demands, and had insisted on an 8-hour workday for her as a new mother. But in a recent interview with NTV Telugu, Pranay Reddy Vanga said the exit was due to Deepika asking for 10% share in the film’s profits. “The reason is the same as what was already mentioned. One was remuneration, the second was timing. Apart from that, there are some other reasons too. Soon after, everything went overboard. See, she can ask for anything. If we are willing to give, we can give. But the economics [budget] should also work out for us. We thought that it was not working. This is why we thought of other options. Once we started looking for other options, they started leaking everything,” Pranay said.
Triptii eventually did replace Deepika in the film. The first look featuring her and Prabhas was launched on New Year’s Day 2026. The film also stars Vivek Oberoi in the lead role, and is slated to release on March 5, 2027.
Deepika, meanwhile, has two big films lined up. She will be seen next in King with Shah Rukh Khan. Deepika is also slated to star alongside Atlee’s Raaka, opposite Allu Arjun.
