With just 2 Hindi-language films, Sandeep Reddy Vanga has managed to offend a huge chunk of our society who think that his ideas about love and relationships are messed up. In an interview with film critic Anupama Chopra, Vanga had claimed “If you can’t touch your woman, wherever you want, and if you can’t slap, you can’t kiss, you can’t use cuss words, I don’t see the emotion there.”
There is no denying the fact that Vanga’s films glorify aggressive behavior in the name of “love”. Legendary lyricist Javed Akhtar has a problem with that. He recently attended the Ajanta Ellora International Film Festival in Aurangabad and without taking any names he said, “If there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe, if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman…and the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous.”
He was speaking on the kind of films that are becoming huge box office successes today, reported Hindustan Times.
As his statement was grabbing headlines, someone from the team that’s handling the official X account of ‘Animal’ took a direct dig at Javed Akhtar. People allege it’s Sandeep Reddy Vanga himself but it cannot be verified. The post tried to justify Ranvijay’s (played by Ranbir Kapoor) behavior towards Zoya (played by Tripti Dimri) by calling them “lovers”.
“Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE & If a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said ‘lick my shoe’ then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it feminism. Let love be free from the politics of gender. Let’s just call them lovers. LOVER cheated and lied. LOVER said lick my shoe. Period,” the post read.
Have a look:
Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE 🙃 & If a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said "lick my shoe" then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it…
— Animal The Film (@AnimalTheFilm) January 7, 2024
People online slammed the user behind this post first, for being unable to handle any form of criticism and second, for taking a dig at Javed Akhtar, a person whose contribution towards art and cinema is vast as compared to Vanga. Here’s what some of them said:
Agar har criticism ka answer dena pad rha hai you know you made a problematic movie !!
— Harry Ghai (@iamharryghai) January 7, 2024
You all call yourself as Alpha males and get affected by someone’s comments every few days lol
— ADITYA (@AdiSRKian) January 7, 2024
Imagine the desperate need to respond to every critical opinion only proves your need for approval and validation. Besides it is a testimony to how toxic, problematic and societally harmful the film is.
— @UrbanShrink 🌻 (@UrbanShrink) January 7, 2024
Javed akhtar has written greatest movies/songs of all times!
Animal won’t even be remembered after few years!
Class is Class!
Quality is Quality!
Making money isn’t a measure of quality!— Dr. Maulik Modi (@iamthemaulik) January 7, 2024
@Javedakhtarjadu has written so many iconic pieces. Even his latest “Nikle the kabhi hum Ghar se” is deeper than your entire film bud. So chill and let others have and share their opinions. Bade aaye Alpha banne, ek comment to hazam hota nahin.
— Nisarg (@tweetynisarg) January 7, 2024
What kind of love is where you ask your partner to lick your shoes? What level of writing skill do you need to write that? Vanga acts like a hormon filled adolescent.
If they are lover, then there is mutal respect for the other human being… unless and until you think the other…— Hardy Bajwa (@geekishrealm) January 7, 2024
Do you think the post was unnecessary?