Ranbir Kapoor in a still from the film. (courtesy: YouTube)
Ranbir Kapoor has ended 2023 on a great note thanks to his film Animal emerging as a blockbuster at the box office. The film, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, is an action-drama with a complex father-son relationship at its core. Animal leaped into the ₹300-crore and ₹400-crore club with relative ease, and on day 16 of its release, the film has made a whopping ₹13.00 crore across all languages, as per Sacnilk. With this, the total collection of the film stands at ₹498.14 Cr. Animal, headlined by Ranbir Kapoor, has a strong ensemble cast including Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Triptii Dimri.
Animal has been the topic of widespread discussion not just for the great performances and its box office numbers, but also for scenes that have been labelled by many as violent and problematic. For instance, actress Triptii Dimri, whose character has an illicit affair with Ranbir Kapoor's character Ranvijay Singh received backlash for intimate scenes. Speaking about this with ETimes, Triptii Dimri said, “Honestly, the scene is getting a lot of criticism and it did disturb me initially, because I'm someone who has hardly faced criticism. I was also taken aback. But then, I sat myself down and I thought about it. Nobody forced me to become an actor. I wanted to do it because I found it exciting. And as I started doing it, the characters that I played, started healing a part of me. And I started having fun with the process.”
Bobby Deol, whose plays “Animal ka enemy” Abrar Haque also spoke about his character. In an interaction with AajTak, Bobby Deol said, “I didn't think of my character as a villain. I saw my character as a child who was traumatised when he saw his grandfather committing suicide, so he lost his voice. He swears to avenge his grandfather's death. He is very family-oriented. He is also romantic, he has three wives. He can kill and also get killed for his family.”
Speaking about the film, ahead of its release, Ranbir Kapoor said, “Animal is basically the adult-rated Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. If I had to describe this story in a line, then it's about a man who goes to any length to protect his family. That's what the core of the film is.” About his role, Ranbir added, “I won't call it darkness but it is the most complex character I have played. Sandeep has given many colours to not just mine but every character. He gives all characters different emotions, complexities and that is very exciting to portray.”
Animal released in theatres on December 1, clashing with Meghna Gulzar's Sam Bahadur.