Hours after filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga slammed veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar for criticising his latest release Animal, netizens trolled the director and said that his film indeed 'problematic'. For those unversed, Javed Akhtar recently took a dig at the much-talked-about film and stated that the popularity of such films is 'extremely dangerous'. Reacting to his comment, the official handle of the movie Animal slammed the veteran celeb and called his art form a "big false".
In an event, Akhtar said that the image of a hero in cinema should be created keeping in mind what is correct and what is not. Without taking names, 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." His comment was an apparent dig at Animal, in which Ranbir's character was seen asking Tripti Dimri's character Zoya to lick his shoe.
Akhtar's comment, however, did not go down well with the makers of the film, who decided to present their opinion on the same. "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 feminism," read their post on X.
"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," it added.
Soon after it was posted on the micro-blogging site, netizens slammed Sandeep Reddy Vanga and said that he cannot take criticism for his work.
"Agar har criticism ka answer dena pad rha hai you know you made a problematic movie," a user commented under the post.
Another wrote, "You all call yourself as Alpha males and get affected by someone's comments every few days lol."
"All you art form is a big False.. Sandeep is saying this to Jawed Akhtar saab..Pride Air carries the weight of arrogance in making three movies.. Sandeep's excessive pride has grown. Time favors everyone.. and people stand by you during good times.. Bad times will come, and those who were with you will be the ones trolling you," wrote another user.
Here's how others reacted:
Animal controversies
This is not the first time that the makers have used the film's official X handle to address the controversy surrounding Animal. Earlier too, the makers had taken sly digs at critics for giving a negative review to the film, which has earned over Rs 500 crore at the box office.
Animal found itself at the centre of several controversies after its release, primarily due to Ranbir's character, Ranvijay, who was shown to be a self-proclaimed "alpha male". The film was slammed by a number of critics and audience alike, and it was accused of promoting sexism, violence and toxic masculinity.
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