Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, was met with strong criticism when it was first released. Many others regarded the film as being misogynistic. The public debated dialogues such as “lick my shoes” and others, accusing Animal’s creators of displaying toxic masculinity. The movie did well at the box office, though. With a gross of over Rs 850 crore, Animal turned out to be one of Ranbir Kapoor’s greatest achievements. But the conversation around Animal is still going strong. Javed Akhtar recently seems to refer to the popularity of films as “dangerous.” It appears that the creators have now addressed Javed Akhtar’s remarks.
At a film event, Javed Akhtar made a comment stating that it is a testing time for filmmakers over what kind of characters they want to create to gain applause from the society. He added, “For instance, if there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman, and if the film is a super duper hit, then that’s very dangerous.” He did not mention Animal, however, it got linked to it as there’s a dialogue in the film where a man is asking a woman to lick his shoe. Now, on X (formerly known as Twitter), the makers of Animal have responded to Javed Akhtar’s comments. A tweet tagging Javed Akhtar made by Animal The Film’s official handle reads, “Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE & If a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said “lick my shoe” then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it feminism.” The tweet further also states that let love be above politics and gender.
Previously, Sandeep Reddy Vanga through interviews has hit back at critics and more slamming Animal. Criticism aside, Animal is a hit and the makers even celebrated it in a big way by organising a party in Mumbai. Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Bobby Deol and many more marked attendance.
