Morality, artistic freedom and creative responsibility have currently been the hot topics of debate on social media ever since Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’ was released in theatres. Because the movie is so allegedly violent and gory, a lot of people are having trouble coming to terms with the kind of impact it might have on our society. According to several claims, the film celebrates the toxic alpha violent male.
Anurag Kashyap, in an interview, shared his two cents on ‘Animal’ and said that nobody has the right to tell a filmmaker what kind of films they can or cannot make. He highlighted that people in our country get easily offended by films and it happens with his films too.
“I’m aware of the conversations happening online. Nobody has the right to tell a filmmaker what kind of films they should and shouldn’t make. People in this country get easily offended with films. They get offended with my films too. But I expect educated people to not get offended at the drop of a hat,” Outlook quoted him saying.
Kashyap went on to remind the interviewer that similar discussions also took place when ‘Kabir Singh’ was released.
“This discussion happened during Kabir Singh too. Filmmakers have the right to make any film they want to and represent what they want to.”
He then went on to question morality itself and said that it is subjective. He felt that we could criticize, argue or disagree with a film but we cannot ask a filmmaker to not make the kind of films they want to make.
“What is morality? It’s a very subjective thing. Every kind of character and people exist in this society. 80 percent of Indian men are like Kabir Singh. I didn’t have an issue with the subject. We can criticise, argue and disagree with them. Films either provoke or evoke. I’ve no problem with filmmakers that make provocative cinema… Once I see ‘Animal,’ I’ll discuss it with the filmmaker. I’ll pick up the phone on him. That’s what I always do. If I’ve an issue with a film, I always call up the filmmaker and talk to him. I don’t want to get into social media chatter,” he expressed.
Do you agree with what Anurag Kashyap has to say here?