Karan Johar, Ranbir Kapoor in a still from the film. (courtesy: KaranJohar)
Karan Johar, who termed Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal as the best film of 2023 earlier, once again applauded the film at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2024. Karan clearly said that he loved the "treatment" of the film. Karan said at the forum, "There's been a lot of debate on Animal. People have expressed opinions, stood for it or against it - the filmmaker himself has been very vocal about his feelings. Personally, truly honestly, I saw it as a character film based on a character who was deeply dysfunctional, inherently violent, who had many emotional issues - and I loved the treatment."
Animal has been slammed by a section of the Internet for its portrayal of violence, problematic masculinity and misogyny. Celebrities like Javed Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma also expressed their thoughts on the film and they didn't approve of the content of the film. However, Karan Johar said he didn't delve deep into the moral fabric of the film. He said, "I didn't go deep into the moral communication of the film - I was so swept by the narrative and the way the filmmaker told the story of it through sound design, screenplay, dialogue, character development, that as a filmmaker, I loved it."
Prior to Karan Johar, Bhumi Pednekar pitched for a director's right to self-expression in the context of Animal in her interview with The Lallantop. When asked if she watched Animal, Bhumi said she watched the film and added she has never enjoyed watching "hyper-masculine films." Bhumi told The Lallantop, "I watched Animal. Par mujhe hyper-masculine films maja hi nehi aata. Aur ye abhi se nehi, bohat pehle se hain.. Hollywood ki bhi action films hain na...mujhe na rom-com, agar mera genre pooche, mujhe woh films zyada pasand aati hai ( I don't like watching hyper-masculine films, and it's not for now, earlier also I never enjoyed those kind of films. Even in Hollywood, the action films... I like watching rom-coms)."
Bhumi added, "I genuinely believe that a film is a filmmaker's self-expression, and that is very important. But as an audience, what you learn from that self-expression, that is the challenge."
Despite receiving criticism, Animal minted a whopping amount of money at the box office. Animal also won five Filmfare Awards this year including Ranbir Kapoor's trophy in the Best Actor (Popular) category.