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Amid ‘Animal’ Debate, Imran Khan Opens Up About The ‘Glamourization’ Of Violence In Films

byDisha Banerjee
22nd April 2024
3 minute read

The Sandeep Reddy Vanga school of films has started a very interesting debate in recent times and a significant question that pops up every now and then is, is it okay to celebrate and glamourize violence on screen?

A section of our society seems to think that violence must be shown in a responsible way on screen. Violence is gruesome. Violence is ‘bad’. Hence, if a filmmaker decides to show violence on screen by adding very catchy background music and featuring an actor having a grin on his face expressing the pride and satisfaction he feels inside upon pulling the trigger, he is essentially setting the wrong precedent.

Picture source: Animal

There were also several questions raised regarding the moral obligation of a filmmaker or an actor because, in India, the audience takes films very seriously. ‘Stars’ influence the way much of the audience behaves and dresses on an everyday basis. But on the other hand, many questioned if such kind of moral obligations or expectations robs artists off their artistic freedom.

Amidst this debate, something that Imran Khan spoke about in his interview with film critic Anupama Chopra struck a chord with many people. He said that nowadays, there is a certain kind of fetishization of violence that we get to see on screen which makes him deeply uncomfortable.

 

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“I don’t want to play a character who solves problems with a gun. I have a sense about where cinema is these days globally. There is a glamourization, a fetishization and a sexualization of violence that makes me uncomfortable. I’ve grown up loving action cinema. For me, when I was in my early adolescence, my heroes were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone. Going to the 90s, these were the stars. To this day I love Jackie Chan. There is a way to portray violence. This is not a morality thing,” he said.

He goes on to add:

“Violence and action – it is a language within cinema. But when we communicate it and we portray it in films, there is a way to do it where you feel the weight of it. We’ve started making films where heroes will kind of shoot 7 people on their heads and their heads will explode to music and they make it cool and sexy. It makes me uncomfortable.”

You can watch this particular section of the interview here:

Many lauded his views on how violence is being shown in films nowadays and agreed with his point of view. They expressed how we need more “soft boy” films today than ever before. Here’s how some of them reacted:

Do you agree with what Imran Khan has to say here?

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