Actor Avinash Tiwary, director Neeraj Ghaywan, and writer Varun Grover have reacted to Anurag Kashyap’s post supporting Animal and its director Sandeep Reddy Vanga. They were not fans of the filmmaker praising Sandeep amid his film Animal being called out for promoting violence against women and toxic masculinity. Also read: Anurag Kashyap calls Sandeep Reddy Vanga ‘misunderstood filmmaker’, says Animal is ‘game changer of Hindi cinema’
Avinash Tiwary, Neeraj Ghaywan, Varun Grover’s take
Not mincing works, filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan – known for films such as Masaan (2015) – commented on Anurag Kashyap’s post, “Cringe!” Reacting to Anurag’s post, actor-writer Varun Grover, who was seen in the 2022 film Qala, wrote, “No.”
Actor Avinash Tiwary left this comment on Anurag’s post defending and praising ‘most misunderstood’ Sandeep Reddy Vanga, “Judged, honest and lovely human being maybe but misunderstood and reviled am not sure. I think he is fairly successful in the kind of response he has been able to generate. Great for an Artist but Extremely Unfortunate for the naive audience. We need good Artists but we need better audience and that includes all of us.
Many Instagram users also did not agree with Anurag, one of whom wrote about Sandeep, “He has made lives of women across the spectrum of classes a living hell, as all the sh***y men in their lives now have found a justification for their pathetic acts.” Another wrote, “Takes it all on his chin? No, he (Sandeep Reddy Vanga) gets triggered and starts attacking critics personally.”
Anurag Kashyap’s post for Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Anurag shared photos of himself meeting Sandeep and wrote on Instagram, “Had a great evening with @sandeepreddy.vanga . The most misunderstood, judged and reviled filmmaker at the moment. To me he is the most honest, vulnerable and a lovely person. I wanted to meet the man and I had questions and he answered everything I asked of him about his film that I actually saw twice. Thank you for being patient and being yourself.”
He further wrote in his caption, “This is a person you can actually confront and talk to. Please talk to him about the problems you have with the film. 40 days since I first saw Animal and 22 days since I saw it the second time. The biggest game changer of Hindi cinema in the longest time and a film whose impact (good or bad), can’t be denied. And the filmmaker who takes it all on his chin. Great evening spent with him.”
Earlier, celebs such as Shah Rukh Khan, Kangana Ranaut, Javed Akhtar and many others had directly or indirectly reacted to Animal’s box office success. Replying to an X user, Kangana had blamed the audiences for picking ‘women beating films’ like Animal over her recent action film Tejas, based on the life of a female Indian Air Force officer.
As per a report by Sacnilk.com, the film has grossed ₹911 crore worldwide after it was released on December 1.