Success of films like Animal is ‘dangerous’, says Javed Akhtar as he urges viewers to be more discerning: ‘If a man asks a woman to lick his shoe…’

Speaking at the 9th Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Akhtar expressed concern about films like Animal achieving success.

“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,” he observed, as reported by Loksatta.

“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,” he said, referring to the scene between Ranbir and Triptii Dimri’s characters in Animal.

“Nowadays, I feel that more responsibility is on the audiences than filmmakers. The audiences have 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.

In her review of the movie, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “This Ranbir Kapoor-Anil Kapoor-Rashmika Mandanna film ricochets off target after having raced full-tilt to the mid-point: if it had come to an end at the interval, it would have made its point.”