Sandeep Reddy Vanga opens up about Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna’s inter-caste marriage in Animal, ‘reckless negligence’ of kiss

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga claimed that it wasn’t a conscious decision to show inter-caste relationships in each of his three movies – the Telugu-language hit Arjun Reddy, its Hindi remake Kabir Singh, and the recent blockbuster Animal. In an interview, the provocative filmmaker also spoke about the rebellious kiss that Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna’s characters share as an act of defiance against their families in Animal.

Speaking to Galatta Plus, Vanga was asked about his fascination with inter-caste relationships, and he said that it wasn’t deliberate. “I see a lot of Telugu and Tamil families settled in Delhi. Maybe I like seeing inter-region and inter-caste marriage…” Asked about the kiss, and the way it has been staged in the film with a rock song in the background, Vanga said, “There’s a recklessness in the rock. You feel like they’re voicing out their rage. There’s a bit of negligence also in that,” he said.

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He continued, “I thought, after we see what he does in the school, and the family drama, I wanted him to sit in such a way that he has already heard a lot from (her family), but we, as an audience, are only listening to the last part of it. The brief was, ‘You’ve been listening to this for 10 minutes, you know that they are not going to understand your explanations, so let’s give them something unexpected’. After that, there’s no more talking.”

In the same interview, Vanga also spoke about the female characters in his films, dismissed allegations of misogyny against his movies, and lashed out at his critics. Vanga said that only a fraction of the larger audience has found reasons to dislike his movies, and explained the reasoning behind the scenes that have raised the most eyebrows. Despite the controversy, Animal has grossed more than Rs 850 crore worldwide, and has emerged as the third-biggest Indian movie of the year, and the biggest A-rated Indian film of all time.