Javed Akhtar Says Success Of Films Like ‘Animal’ Is Dangerous, Urges Viewers To Be More Discerning

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranbir Kapoor-starrer ‘Animal’, despite being slammed for perceived “glorification” of misogyny and violence, has emerged to be one of the biggest hits of 2023, and has earned around Rs 900 crore worldwide. It cannot be ruled out that while several industry people praised the film, there are several others who have not been pleased with Vanga’s idea of feminism and toxic masculinity.

Now joining the latter group of people is none other than screenwriter, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar. He, along with Salim Khan, is behind some of the biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema’s history, and they have created the “Angry Young Man” archetype in Bollywood cinema. But the renowned screenwriter now mentioned that ‘Animal’ achieving success is actually concerning for him. 

He said at the 9th Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, “The image of a hero should be created with an awareness of what is right and how it should be. Today’s writers need to think, because confusion has increased among them. The reason for this is that society is in confusion. Society does not decide what is right and what is wrong, but it is reflected in cinema. There was a time when the poor were good and the rich were bad. But today, we only have one thought in our head, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati?’ So we can’t make the rich look bad now since we ourselves want to be rich,” as reported by Loksatta.

Referring to the scene between Ranbir and Triptii Dimri’s characters, he said, “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 the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous.”

Last but not the least, he mentioned how more responsibility is on the audiences than filmmakers since they need to decide what movies they like and what they don’t like. “It is entirely up to the audiences to decide what to reject. The ball is currently in the audiences’ court. Even today, there are as many filmmakers making good movies, but only a few. The fate of cinema depends on how long you stand with them,” Akhtar added.

‘Animal’ also stars Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandana, Triptii Dimri and Shakti Kapoor.