‘Animal’ dialogue writer Saurabh Gupta reacts to the backlash: A lot of people reacting to the film haven't seen it

Director-screenwriter

Saurabh Gupta

, who has crafted the dialogues for the blockbuster film ‘Animal’ states that most of the people reacting to the film haven't watched it. Gupta was speaking at the screenwriters panel at the 24th edition of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (

FICCI

) Frames 2024. He was on the panel of the discussion ‘Making sense of the Animal Phenomenon’.

Though

Sandeep Reddy Vanga

’s films including the recent ‘Animal’ starring

Ranbir Kapoor

have emerged as blockbusters, it has also sparked conversation around the glorification of toxic masculinity and legitimate personal violence which could impact young people adversely.
Speaking at the panel, Saurab Gupta stated that he is aware of the strong criticism ‘Animal’ has received. “It cannot be wished away, and I cannot say hamme nahi farak padta (We don’t care). The criticism as well as the appreciation land at my doorsteps, but the intention is not to offend somebody,” Saurabh Gupta said.
During the conversation, Saurab Gupta also addressed the whole criticism surrounding why Abrar Haque is a Muslim, even though he belongs to the same family as Ranvijay, who is a Sikh. “We are trying to figure out why there was this reaction surrounding Abrar’s character. There was a rift in his relationship with his grandfather. He goes away and changes his religion. But now we are realising that the hero is also as big a villain, but he is a Hindu, so nobody asked why we portrayed a Hindu like that. It is interesting to understand this and like I said, the film is located in a larger conversation that is happening,” he asserted.

He also added that the religious context was never intentional, and so is the gender-related criticism. Saurab Gupta also went on to add that though there are fewer women in the film, the heroine has a strong stand, “Also on the gender criticism, there was never an intent to show that auratein kum hai... but I felt hero ki wife ka bahut haq hai. In the end, she leaves and he loses everything, this used to be enough but it is no longer. A lot of people reacting to the film have not seen the film."