New Delhi: Ranbir Kapoor-starrer 'Animal' was a big box office blockbuster. The Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial courted controversy during its theatrical run. While Vanga had been quite outspoken about the film, Ranbir Kapoor has for the first time opened up about the response the film received. Despite being the biggest hit of his career, he received massive criticism for it.
Ranbir Kapoor on Animal
'Animal' has been called various things besides also being labelled 'misogynistic' and 'violent'. From Swanand Kirkire to Javed Akhtar, many known celebrities have critiqued the film.
Recently, in an interview with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Ranbir Kapoor spoke about Animal's release and how people within the industry were disappointed with the movie. When the show host alleged that movies should not be the place from where society derives their sense of morality and that their main purpose should only be entertainment, Ranbir Kapoor added, "That was the intention, but it was misconstrued.”
“Social media played havoc. They need something to talk about, so they really went to town claiming it was a misogynistic film. What happens is that the hard work that you put in… I know the director had made Kabir Singh, which also faced the same thing, the hard work gets diminished. Because it gets this tag, which isn’t true, the perception stayed with this film. So, the general public will speak very fondly about the film, but there are many people I meet, who tell me, ‘You shouldn’t have done this film, we are so disappointed in you’. And a lot of people from the film industry (said the same thing). I quietly apologize and say, ‘Sorry I won’t do it next time.’ I don’t really agree with them, but I am in that phase of my life I don’t argue with anyone. If you don’t like my work, I will say I am sorry I will try harder next time,” the star added.
Speaking about he wanted to break free from his 'good boy' image, Ranbir Kapoor said in the same interaction, “I had always been following a career path where I was doing good roles, trying to give good social messages, play the ‘good boy’ basically, the coming-of-age romantic image that I had. So, I found this very bold, adult-rated. I was scared that maybe the audience will not accept me. When the film released, even though it did amazing numbers and we got a lot of love, there is a big audience which found the film misogynist and wrong, in some way.”
Ranbir on shedding his 'good boy' image
When Ranbir was asked if he would do something like that all over again, Kapoor said, "I was stagnating and hitting a saturation point in my career. I was called the ‘next superstar’ for a very long time–and I am not saying I am that today, because unless you have those continuous blockbuster films, you can’t be called a superstar–but Animal was the correct film at the right time, to take another step up. Because I had been flatlining in the same status, so that was very important for me, for my confidence, to shift from a boy to a man in some ways.”