Animal team hits back at Javed Akhtar with a strong message that says, 'your art form...

The official handle of Animal The Film has hit back at Bollywood’s legendary writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar for criticising the Sandeep Reddy Vanga movie. Recently during a discussion at the Ajanta Ellora International Film Festival held in Aurangabad the veteran lyricist made an interesting comment on a particular dialogue from the movie Animal.

He 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.”

It is quite obvious that Javed Akhtar is referring here to the particular scene from the movie Animal where Rannvijay aka Ranbir Kapoor asks Zoya aka Triptii Dimri to prove her love for him by licking his shoes. The slapping-a-woman reference seems to be in context with Vanga’s other super hit movie Kabir Singh which starred Kiara Advani and Shahid Kapoor.

Both the movies and their dialogues, as well as the situations, have been criticised hugely by many critics and a certain section of society. The team of Animal has not taken this jibe lightly and has hit back at Javed with a strong message on its official X handle.

Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE 🙃 & 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…

— Animal The Film (@AnimalTheFilm) January 7, 2024

The message reads, “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."

Animal released last year has already done a massive business and has crossed 800 crore earnings worldwide. Apart from Ranbir Kapoor and Triptii Dimri, it stars Rashmika Mandanna, Bobby Deol and Anil Kapoor in important roles.