Animal team reacts to Javed Akhtar’s comment on film: ‘Your art form is false’

After veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar criticised Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal and Kabir Singh, the team of the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer took a dig at him. Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, the official handle of the film said that if a writer of his ‘calibre’ can’t understand the betrayal of a lover, ‘then all your art form is big false’. The film’s team also took a dig at feminism. (Also Read | Javed Akhtar calls the success of Animal ‘dangerous’: Onus is on the audience)
The X handle of Animal wrote, “Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big false (upside-down face emoji) & 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. Let love be free from the politics of gender. Let’s just call them lovers. Lover cheated and lied. Lover said lick my shoe. Period.”
Recently, talking at the Ajanta Ellora International Film Festival in Aurangabad, Javed had said, “I believe it’s a testing time for the young filmmakers today as to what kind of characters they want to create that the society will applaud. 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.”
Javed was referring to a key scene in Animal, where the film’s lead character Rannvijay (Ranbir Kapoor), asked Zoya (Triptii Dimri) to lick his shoes to prove her love for him. The scene earlier generated a controversy. The slapping was seemingly in reference to Sandeep’s 2019 film Kabir Singh, which starred Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani.
Animal, helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023. However, it was also criticised for its depiction of misogyny and brutal violence by a section of viewers and critics.
Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Suresh Oberoi, and Prem Chopra also featured in the film. It left many fans excited as it had a post-credits scene, teasing a sequel titled Animal Park, in which Ranbir would potentially have a double role. Animal revolves around a troubled father-son relationship and has Ranbir in the role of Rannvijay Singh, who goes on to exact revenge after there’s an assassination attempt on his father.
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