Ranbir Kapoor opens up on the criticism of Animal, 'Social media played havoc...'

For all the praise garnered over performances, Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal has also been brutally criticized for allegedly promoting misogyny, and violence. However, Ranbir Kapoor, who played the lead star in the movie, recently opened up on all the trolling, and why most of it was uncalled for.

In a chat with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Ranbir reflected on the backlash, and said, “Social media played havoc.They need something to talk about, so they really went to town claiming it was a misogynistic film. What happens is that the hard work that you put in… I know the director had made Kabir Singh, which also faced the same thing, the hard work gets diminished. Because it gets this tag, which isn’t true, the perception stayed with this film. So, the general public will speak very fondly about the film, but there are many people I meet, who tell me, ‘You shouldn’t have done this film, we are so disappointed in you’. And a lot of people from the film industry (said the same thing). I quietly apologize and say, ‘Sorry I won’t do it next time.’ I don’t really agree with them, but I am in that phase of my life I don’t argue with anyone. If you don’t like my work, I will say I am sorry I will try harder next time.”

Reflecting on his career till now, the Saawariya actor said, “I had always been following a career path where I was doing good roles, trying to give good social messages, play the ‘good boy’ basically, the coming-of-age romantic image that I had. So, I found this very bold, adult-rated. I was scared that maybe the audience will not accept me. When the film released, even though it did amazing numbers and we got a lot of love, there is a big audience which found the film misogynist and wrong, in some way.”

“I was stagnating and hitting a saturation point in my career. I was called the ‘next superstar’ for a very long time–and I am not saying I am that today, because unless you have those continuous blockbuster films, you can’t be called a superstar–but Animal was the correct film at the right time, to take another step up. Because I had been flatlining in the same status, so that was very important for me, for my confidence, to shift from a boy to a man in some ways, ” he added.
Animal co-starred Rashmika Mandanna, Triptii Dimri and Anil Kapoor.