Sandeep Reddy Vanga recalls an IAS officer’s reaction to Animal: ‘He sounded like I committed some crime’

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“But, if it was a film worth making only Rs 150-200 crore, it would have been declared a flop. With the kind of criticism I got, even if the movie made Rs 200 crore, it would have been dubbed as a flop because the sound was so big. Though these critics are a small percentage, they speak in front of the mic and hence, become so big,” he pointed out.

The filmmaker continued, “There were people who made 2-hour videos criticising Animal. There are videos where 4-10 people sat together and talked about Animal, bashing the film. A person was driving his car and giving a review of the film and the video was 1 hour 30 minutes. There are so many social issues and nobody talks about them. Everyone wants to discuss only about movies. I feel filmmakers are easy targets.”

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During the chat, Sandeep Reddy Vanga also went on to recall an incident where an IAS officer publicly condemned Animal as if making the film were a criminal act. “An IAS officer, in an interview, said that movies like Animal shouldn’t be made. He sounded like I committed some crime in making that movie. He said, ‘On one hand, we are making movies like 12th Fail and on the other, films like Animal are making the society regressive.’ If somebody attacks you unnecessarily, you will get angry. He is an IAS officer who must have studied hard and reached where he is. However, if you go to Delhi, get enrolled in an institute and give 2-3 years of your life, you can crack IAS. But, I can give you in writing that there’s no course or teacher that can make you a filmmaker or writer,” he added.

Animal featured Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Triptii Dimri in the lead roles.