Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal was one of the biggest movies of 2023 starring Ranbir Kapoor. The movie was huge commercial hit grossing over Rs 500 crore in India and Rs 900 crore worldwide. However, not everyone was a fan of the movie, especially veteran writer and filmmaker Javed Akhtar. The veteran song writer recently cleared the previous statement he made about Animal and said that the film itself wasn’t the problem.

Animal received backlash for the portrayal of women and one particular scene where Ranbir asks Triptii Dimri to lick his shoes. In an interview with Mojo Story, Javed Akhtar said, “I did not opine on Animal, I opined on the audience. Honestly! I believe if 10-12-15 people have made a film with wrong values… if 10-12 people produce a song which is vulgar, crude, obscene… that’s not the problem. If 15 out of 140 crore people are perverts or have wrong values, it’s okay, doesn’t matter. When that thing goes out in the market and becomes a superhit, that’s the problem.”

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

Sandeep Reddy Vanga had previously slammed Javed Akhtar’s criticism and the official X handle of Animal film wrote, “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.”