‘Animal’ directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and starring Ranbir Kapoor has done well at the box office, but it hasn’t been immune to criticism. Some audience members believe the film to be misogynistic, while others doubt the value of movies that promote violence. Famous lyricist Javed Akhtar has sparked an ongoing debate by going so far as to characterise the success of such movies as dangerous.
Director Anurag Kashyap, who is well-known for his work in the drama and crime genres, joined in on the debate and expressed support for Vanga. Recently, the two directors got in touch, and Kashyap supported Vanga and his efforts.
Animal director got admiration from Anurag Kashyap:
Anurag Kashyap posted pictures from an evening spent with Animal director Sandeep Reddy Vanga on instagram and wrote a heartfelt caption which demonstrates his admiration to Vanga.
Anurag wrote “Had a great evening with @sandeepreddy.vanga. The most misunderstood, judged and reviled filmmaker at the moment. To me, he is the most honest, vulnerable and a lovely human being. And I really don’t give a f””” what anyone thinks of him or his film. I wanted to meet the man and I had questions and he answered everything I asked of him about his film that I actually saw twice.”
“Thank you for being patient and being yourself. 40’days since I first saw Animal and 22 days since I saw it the second time. The biggest game changer of Hindi cinema in the longest time and a film whose impact (good or bad) which can’t be denied. And the filmmaker who takes it all on his chin. Great evening spent with him,” he added.
Animal explores the story of a workaholic father who finds it impossible to comprehend the deep love and respect his son has for him. Their disparity in emotions creates an ideal canvas for conflict. But the son goes on an unrelenting rampage in retaliation when the father is the target of an attempted murder. Swiftly, the movie became an immediate hit and culminated in a lavish celebration last week that was attended by prominent members of Bollywood.
In the last interview with Pinkvilla, Anurag Kashyap said referring to Ranbir Kapoor that “Who wouldn’t want to work with him? But I don’t think… It takes a lot of time to accept. Look, I don’t have any formula for making a blockbuster, and when a star experiments, I get criticised, and so does he.”
Anurag Kashyap, Director of “Black Friday” continued “When a person becomes a star, he gets fans. The word fan comes from fanatic. So, fans see their star in a certain way. The fan clubs are constantly fighting among themselves; there’s an invisible war going on non-stop between all the fan clubs. So, if you’re not catering to that fan club, making a film with the star becomes a challenging task for a filmmaker.”
In conversation with News 18, Anurag Kashyap said about Animal that he was aware of the conversations happening online. Nobody has the right to tell a filmmaker what kind of films they should and shouldn’t make. People in this country get easily offended by films. They get offended by his films too. But he expects educated people to not get offended at the drop of a hat.
He said the same thing happened with Vanga’s Kabir Singh, Kashyap added “This discussion happened during Kabir Singh too. Filmmakers have the right to make any film they want to and represent what they want to. We can criticise, argue and disagree with them. Films either provoke or evoke. I’ve no problem with filmmakers that make provocative cinema.”
Animal and Javed Akhtar controversy:
Writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar, a seasoned veteran, recently seemed to criticise the movie Animal.
According to him, young filmmakers nowadays are putting their ideas about the kinds of characters that the public will find appealing to test. For example, if a man claims it’s acceptable to slap a woman or asks her to lick his shoe in a movie, and that movie becomes an enormous hit, that could be extremely risky.
Fans reaction on Anurag Kashyap post:
A person commented on the Instagram post Anurag that “Wow, this was difficult for me to read.”
“Anurag, you were right. You’re really lost,” another person added.
“Disappointed is an understatement here,” read another comment.
Someone else wrote “I am so disappointed with you @anuragkashyap10 praising a movie which clearly dehumanizes a woman and on top of it talking about impact, good or bad! How can bad be normalized?”
More about film Animal:
According to media reports, the action movie has made more than ₹900 crore worldwide.
The film directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga earned ₹550.85 crore in the home market. The crime action drama “Animal” defied critics and some viewers by becoming one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2023, despite being criticized for being brutally violent and gender biased.
Despite competition from Prabhas’ ‘Salaar’, Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dunki’, and Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Sam Bahadur’,the revenge action drama manages to stay in business.
