It has been four months since director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial film, Animal, was released in theatres. Despite its phenomenal success at the box office, the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer has been a topic of debate for its perceived misogyny. Many from the industry, including Kiran Rao, Javed Akhtar, and Parvathy, have criticised the film for its content. Director-composer Vishal Bhardwaj recently spoke about the film’s success, and why he's in two minds about it. “I have still not made up my mind what to feel about that film. because I enjoyed it, and at the same time I hated it,” he told Firstpost. ALSO READ Dibakar Banerjee reveals Ekta Kapoor saw his unreleased controversial Netflix film Tees, told him ‘I loved it, but wouldn’t want to release it’ While speaking about the evolution of the quintessential Bollywood hero, the Maqbool director added, “I think the recent hit film Animal is all what you are saying is all there. And we have a typical hero, too. That’s one of the biggest hits of all time. People still watch and still want that kind of movie. It’s a big surprise that there is a huge audience for that kind of film as well.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (@sandeepreddy.vanga) He further added that despite there being an audience for a film like Animal, people are also loving films like Laapata Ladies and 12th Fail, which don’t follow the trappings of a conventional masala film. “Vidhu Vinod Chopra, at the age of 71, made the most beautiful film of his life. And with Vikram Massey, you really don’t need stars these days,” he added. Recently, actor Adil Hussain spoke about how he regrets doing Sandeep's Kabir Singh, which also received criticism for glorying misogyny. “That’s the only film in my life that I have done without reading the script, without seeing the movie which it is based on. I regret it till today. The only movie I have regretted doing is that film… Kabir Singh,” he share on YouTube channel AP Podcast. Sandeep wasted no time in responding to the actor's statement, and slammed him for criticising his film. The director, in a social media post, said that he would replace Adil’s face in the movie with “AI help”.
