A still from Animal trailer. (courtesy: T-Series)
Ranbir Kapoor's Animal co-star Siddhant Karnick has come out in support of the actor's character in the film, which is being slammed across social media for being toxic. Talking about it to Times Of India, Siddhant Karnick, who plays Ranbir's brother-in-law in the film, called his character "entertaining." He said, "Ranbir plays a character who completely believes in being alpha and the alpha male tops the food chain and that's the psyche of the character. That's about it. If people want to draw parallels to themselves and society at large, then they are absolutely free to do what they want to. As storytellers, it's our job to tell a story and it's our job as good storytellers to tell a story intensely. We have no responsibility towards how society would respond to it."
He continued, "His character is supposed to be an alpha man, now whether that be toxic or not is how you want to gauge it. I just see him as a very entertaining character. Does it reflect society? I don't know. Society as a whole has its own ways and triggers. If this film triggers them to act a certain way, that's upon their own conditioning, it's not that this film is a social message or an awareness campaign on how human beings should be or how an individual or a man should be in a relationship. I don't know why we are looking at this film as anything other than a film with these characters. What Ranbir played to and what I play as Varun, are just characters, period.”
Earlier, Bobby Deol, who plays the role of an antagonist Abrar in Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal, praised his co-star Ranbir Kapoor. Speaking to News 18, Bobby Deol said, "Ranbir's an amazing guy. I love him. I've worked with a lot of actors. But he gave me a lot of respect. He's a superstar and despite that, he dragged me with him everywhere he went to promote the film. No one does that. Everybody just wants to steal the limelight. But he's not like that. He has no insecurities."
In his review, NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee wrote this about Ranbir Kapoor, "Ranbir Kapoor delivers a powerful performance that is supported with customary elan by Anil Kapoor. But because the film is propelled in the main by problematic means and instincts, the efforts of the two stars can only go abegging. You want to look away when the two are peddling their wares."
Directed by Arjun Reddy director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Animal stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Triptii Dimri in pivotal roles. In terms of work, Siddhant Karnick was also seen in Zoya Akhtar's Made In Heaven season 2.