Animal’s Writer Defends Ranbir Kapoor’s Dialogues, Says There Is ‘Burden’ On Cinema: ‘Thode Mazak Karte Hain’

Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal was released in theatres last year in December. The film was headlined by Ranbir Kapoor and also featured Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna and Triptii Dimri in key roles. While the film became a massive blockbuster hit, it also received criticism for its dialogues and was branded as misogynistic by a section of people. The film’s dialogue writer, Saurabh Gupta, recently defended the film’s dialogues at FICCI Frames.

He said, “Cinema ke saath mardon ko sanitary napkin ki importance samjhana, cigarette peena, sharab peena kharab hai woh samjhana, itna bojh padh gaya hai, cinema jhuk gaya hai sir. Hum thoda maza karte hai na. (In Cinema, to make men understand the importance of sanitary napkins, that smoking and drinking is bad, all of this has become a huge burden. Let’s also have some fun).”

He also addressed the criticism around Bobby Deol’s villain character Abrar. Saurabh said, “We felt it fit logically into the script… Now we are realising that there is this view as well. But the hero (Ranbir) is as much of a demon as the villain (Bobby). And he’s a Hindu, but no one said that he was portrayed badly.”

Recently, Karan Johar also opened up about Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and said that he loved the film. “There’s been a lot of debate on Animal. People have expressed opinions, stood for it or against it—the filmmaker himself has been very vocal about his feelings. Personally, truly honestly, I saw it as a character film based on a character who was deeply dysfunctional, inherently violent, who had many emotional issues—and I loved the treatment,” said Karan Johar.

“I didn’t go deep into the moral communication of the film—I was so swept by the narrative and the way the filmmaker told the story of it through sound design, screenplay dialogue, character development, that as a filmmaker, I loved it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Ranbir Kapoor will soon start developing the sequel, Animal Park.