Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga dismissed the suggestion that he and his films are misogynistic in nature. The backlash against his brand of cinema has only increased with each new film. What began as minor criticism for Arjun Reddy turned into a full-fledged controversy for its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh, and has now become even bigger with the release of Animal. Vanga said that the criticism doesn’t bother him, as he launched into a rant against critics in a new interview.
Speaking to Galatta Plus, the filmmaker was asked about the allegations of misogyny that have been leveled against him. “Misogyny is the disrespect of women, that’s the actual definition. So, no. Even Kabir Singh, even Animal, even me as a person… I always feel my production company’s name is Bhadrakali Productions, I don’t know why people feel I disrespect (women). Not people, just these 15-20 jokers. It’s the wrong word to use (to describe) Kabir Singh and Animal,” he said.
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Vanga continued, “This too much of analysing and scrutinising films started of late, right?” He highlighted the criticism around certain scenes in the film, when the protagonist, played by Ranbir Kapoor, asks a woman to lick his shoe, or when he repeatedly pulls at his wife’s bra strap, or when he threatens a pregnant woman. Vanga said that these scenes should be spoken about in the context of the story. Regarding the ‘lick my shoe’ scene where Ranbir’s character asks Zoya (played by Triptii Dimri) to prove her allegiance by licking his shoe, the director said it never really happened in the film because Rannvijay stops her.
About the scene in which the hero asks his wife to remove her clothes, Vanga said that it was designed to be romantic. He said that a comment that the hero makes about his wife’s pelvis is supposed to be a compliment. “He can’t come out and say that he loves her and has loved her since they were in school, so he’s trying to take a different route. That’s how a character like that is supposed to talk… He knew that if he doesn’t say one more line, she’d be gone. So, how can he say that he sees a future with her, and that he wants to marry her? I thought, in these situations, boys behave very differently sometimes. Your intention is something else, but you end up saying something else. He didn’t know what to say,” Vanga explained.
The director said that this was also the brief given to Ranbir. “Because he didn’t know what to say, he said, ‘Geetanjali, you have a big pelvis’. That’s his way of saying we’ll get married and have babies. I thought it was a compliment.” Released earlier this month, Animal has emerged as a major box office hit, despite the controversy that it has generated. The film has grossed nearly Rs 850 crore worldwide, and remains the third-biggest Indian hit of the year so far, behind Pathaan and Jawan.
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Ranbir Kapoor’s pelvis comment in Animal is ‘romantic’, ‘lick my shoe’ moment never happened: Sandeep Reddy Vanga dismisses misogyny allegations – The Indian Express
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