Ranbir Kapoor’s on-screen sister Saloni Batra admits Animal characters are flawed: ‘We can’t be preaching’
Saloni Batra in a new interview reacted to claims that her film Animal promotes violence, toxic masculinity and misogyny.
She told Bollywood Hungama in an interview that although the characters are flawed in the film, none of these were created for preaching purposes. She plays the role of Ranbir Kapoor’s character, Ranvijay’s sister.
Saloni defends Animal
Saloni Batra said, “Of course, the characters are flawed, but you make stories on flawed characters. These are inspirations, and hence, you put them on screen to show them to the audience to sit and enjoy in a theater. Sandeep sir (Sandeep Reddy Vanga) is so legendary with his craft, with his filmmaking, he knows how to reach the audience. Obviously, a character, who has not gotten love from his father is going to be flawed. When we write stories, we always get inspired by real characters in life. Now it’s about also the audience to understand what is right and what is wrong. We can’t be sitting and preaching.”
College shootout scene in Animal
She also talked about a scene from the film in which Ranvijay takes a gun to his sister’s college and fires it to scare the student. Saloni added about the narrative, “That does not happen in real life, and it should not happen. People have loved it, and how he’s devised everything in that scene. It is cinematic, and it’s for the film; it’s for the purpose of that character. So, I don’t think people should take back wrong things from it.”
More about Animal
Animal is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga. It is based on a toxic relationship between son and dad. While Ranbir plays the son, Anil Kapoor plays his father. Rashmika Mandanna appears as Ranbir’s wife whom he cheats upon with Triptii Dimri. The film has Bobby Deol as the antagonist.
The film is currently doing great business at the box office despite criticism and controversy around it. The Hindustan Times review of the film read, “If filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh bothered you, wait till you watch Animal that presents Ranbir as an epitome of misogyny, and he has no qualms about it. Whether it’s telling his younger sister to drink wine and not whiskey, or taking a jibe at the elder one, a Harvard graduate, for just saying , ‘Chup raho, bas karo (Keep quiet)’ in her marriage; he’s loved, hated and misunderstood all at once. As the entitled, rich spoilt brat, Ranvijay considers himself the man in-charge after his father, so if the ladies of the houses (read sisters) are in any trouble, he would take law in his hand to serve people right.”