Vidya Balan: ‘Animal worked because the makers were unabashed and not second-guessing themselves’

Do Aur Do Pyaar actor Vidya Balan praised the makers of Animal for their unabashed filmmaking, calling it the reason behind its success.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | Updated: April 16, 2024 09:47 AM IST

3 min read

Vidya Balan says conviction is the reason for the success of Animal. (Image: Vidya Balan/instagram)

Animal has been the most divisive film of recent times. While the movie became a blockbuster hit, earning more than Rs 900 crore, some viewers felt it purported misogyny and toxic masculinity. Tamil actor Siddharth recently took an indirect dig at Animal while talking about his film Chittha. He claimed that men didn’t have a problem watching films that were titled ‘mirugam’ (Animal in Tamil), but they found Chittha, a movie about child sexual abuse, a disturbing watch. On the other hand, Vidya Balan, in a recent interview has praised the makers of Animal for their unabashed filmmaking.

Animal, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga of Arjun Reddy fame, is the story of a rich kid who grows up without the love and affection of his father. He grows up idolizing his father and turns out to be a person with a penchant for violence and abnormal behaviour. The film follows the rivalry between the hero’s family and the antagonist which leads to a lot of bloodshed.

While talking about content and execution, Vidya Balan said that great content can fail with poor execution, but anything done with conviction will win. She told Pinkvilla, “Conviction is the name of the game here. We are told content is king. But you can have great content told unconvincingly. Animal is a great example of that. I don’t mean that it was not good content, but they were not apologetic and second-guessing. They told the story unabashedly. And look at the way the film worked. While telling a story, be unapologetic.”

When probed about the debate of misogyny attached to Animal, Vidya said, “There are different layers around a film. At the basic level, it was about the conviction with which the story was told. It didn’t let the audience drop the attention even for a second. You can agree and disagree with the film, but you know it was entertaining.”

Directed by Shirsha Guha Thakurta, Do Aur Do Pyaar, starring Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Ileana D’Cruz and Sendhil Rammurthy, will be released on April 19.

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