Kangana Ranaut slams Ranbir Kapoor's 'Animal,' hints at career change
Kangana Ranaut has become the most recent Bollywood celebrity to come down heavily on Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal. Headlined by Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, and Bobby Deol, the A-rated revenge drama has been raking in an astounding sum of money at the box office but has received deeply polarizing reviews. In a series of posts on Monday morning, the Fashion actor accused audiences of supporting "women beating films" and facilitating the "steep regression of women in films."
Ranaut's tweet on paid negativity, discouragement, and career change
In her tweet, Ranaut stated, "Paid negativity for my films is overwhelming, I have been fighting hard so far but even audiences are encouraging women beating films where they are treated like sex objects and asked to lick shoes." "This is deeply discouraging for someone who has been dedicating her life to woman empowerment films, might shift career in coming years, want to give best years of my life to something worthwhile."
Ranaut threw more light on her career aspirations
Ranaut on how the audience plays a role
Putting forth examples such as Gangster, Fashion, Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, Ranaut said that she "ruffled many feathers along the way, went against big production houses like YRF and Dharma, and said no to big heroes like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor" for "women empowerment." "Today looking at the condition of women in films my heart sinks...is the film industry only to blame for this? Audiences have no participation in this steep regression of women in films?"
Read her full tweet here
Javed Akhtar had voiced similar concerns before
Ranaut's concerns mirror those expressed by lyricist Javed Akhtar recently. Speaking at the ninth Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the veteran had said, "If there's a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it's okay to slap a woman...and the film is a super hit, that's dangerous." Subsequently, Animal's X page's admin responded rather angrily, which rattled X users who defended Akhtar.
This is the controversial shoe-licking scene
Spoiler ahead. The aforementioned (shoe-licking scene) occurs in Animal's second half when Zoya (Triptii Dimri) realizes that Ranvijay (Kapoor) knows that she is an ally of his arch-nemesis Abrar (Bobby Deol) and has been sent to spy on him. A tearful Zoya then tells Ranvijay that she has fallen for him, and he asks her to lick his shoe to prove her love and loyalty. She proceeds to, but then Ranvijay walks away.
