Sandeep Reddy Vanga explains why Rashmika Mandanna was absent from Animal promotions, addresses Triptii Dimri’s rumoured PR strategy to attract attention

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga spoke about Rashmika Mandanna being overlooked by audiences and awards bodies for her performance in Animal, even as Triptii Dimri, who had a much smaller role, walked away with the majority of the attention. Previously, Vanga’s brother Pranay had implied that Triptii weaponised her PR machinery to generate attention, which hurt Rashmika.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Vanga addressed these topics, and said that the only reason he attended the recent Filmfare Awards was to support the cast and crew, even though he knew that he wouldn’t win. “She wasn’t even nominated,” he said, adding, “It was not an easy performance. She was giggling, laughing, going mad, going crazy… It’s not at all easy. And it was an 11-minute scene. She was holding the scene.” He continued, “I generally don’t believe in awards, but I went because we had 19 nominations, and the entire team was happy, so why should I be an absentee director there?”

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Usually, Vanga said, one learns if they’re winning an award if they’re told about it in advance. And because he received no such message, he was sure that he wasn’t going to win, but attended only to support his team. Vanga said that he has no idea why she wasn’t nominated, nor does he have any interest in finding out. Asked if Triptii fan following overshadowed Rashmika, as Pranay had previously suggested, Vanga said, “I don’t know if she overshadowed her, but Rashmika is very busy. So busy that she didn’t have time to give one interview. That’s okay. Maybe that’s also why people felt she was overshadowed.”

But Vanga made it a point to praise both Triptii and Rashmika. “The film had so many different facets, it could have been difficult to focus on just them. But Triptii also… She was well prepared with her lines, and she shot that confession scene after shooting for 36 hours.” Animal emerged as a massive hit, grossing over Rs 900 crore worldwide.