Ranbir Kapoor spoke in detail about the criticism that his blockbuster film Animal received, and said that it helped take his career up several notches.
With director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal, Ranbir Kapoor said that he transitioned from a “boy to a man,” but was there a price to pay? After headlining last year’s controversial blockbuster, Ranbir Kapoor has, perhaps for the first time in detail, opened up about the fractured reception of the revenge epic, which emerged as the biggest hit of his career despite harsh criticism.
Animal ignited a debate on social media, with many credible voices, including Javed Akhtar and Swanand Kirkire, slamming the movie for its perceived misogyny and violence. The gender politics of the film, much like Vanga’s previous hit Kabir Singh, remained a talking point for months after its release in December. In a new interview with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Ranbir Kapoor spoke about the aftermath of Animal’s release, and how people from within the industry told him that they were disappointed he headlined the movie. When the host claimed that movies shouldn’t be a place from where society derives their sense of morality, as they are only for entertainment, Ranbir 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,” he said.
The actor said that though Animal lodged itself as one of the highest grossing Hindi films of all time, when he was offered the film and the first time he heard the story, he got “very scared.” Ranbir said a part of the reason for him to do Animal was to break free from his “good boy” image on screen.
“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.”
When asked if he would do the film all over again, Ranbir said he would. “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.”
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