Responding to negative reviews and allegations of spreading ‘toxic masculinity’, Sandeep Reddy Vanga, director of the recently hit film, ‘Animal’ lashed out at the clique of ‘English’ critics calling them ‘illiterate’ and ‘uneducated’. In a conversation with Connect FM Cannada, Vanga admitted that negative reviews do hamper a film.
However, he argued that the film is doing good business at the box office because of the film’s craft. It’s not because Bollywood critics like Anupama Chopra, Sucharita Tyagi, and Rajeev Masand diss his films.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga @imvangasandeep blasts the leftist liberal woke mafia of @anupamachopra & @RajeevMasand who act like lackeys of the khans, big banners & nepo kidverse! They had also outrightly rejected films of @vivekagnihotri, @sudiptosentlm #Animalpic.twitter.com/23heOqsCqS
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) December 20, 2023
He asserted that a random person asking people not to watch his film will have more credibility than this clique of Bollywood critics. He also hinted that these critics have been getting paid for giving pre-determined reviews for the films, emphasising, “I never do that.”
In the interview after the film’s success, he said, “Ek banda apne balcony se chila ka 50 logon ko bolega ki ‘Animal mat dekhna, pagal film hai‘, I would appreciate him, as he’s not earning anything from that. But yeh log YouTube pe videos banate hai na. Inn logo ko paisa bhi aata hai uss mein se.”
He added that he had no problem with them making name, fame, and money by criticising his films. But nobody speaks about the craft, the editing, or other aspects of the film, the director noted.
According to the director, these critics have no sense of “how to criticise or review a film and described such critics as “illiterate” and “uneducated”.
He fumed, “You’re making money, fame, name, everything by criticising my film, then go ahead. That’s what happened with most of the critics during Kabir Singh. Their shot to fame was criticising ‘Kabir Singh’…Nobody speaks about the craft, the editing, or sound design, because they are literally illiterate, and uneducated when it comes to films. They have no sense of how to criticise the film or review the film.”
During the interaction, he highlighted that Anupama Chopra constantly messaged him to give an interview, stating that he had 6-7 messages. According to him, before the release, she texted, “We should meet” but after the release, “You see a different colour”, Vanga said. He said that they criticised the film left, right, and centre in the worst way, and after a few days, they tried to call me to have a round table discussion, naming Rajeev Masand as the critic to do so. He emphasised that these critics don’t have the guts to sit and talk face to face and when confronted they beat around the bush and talk nonsense.
He stated that having spent several years in Mumbai, he has found that there is a gang of critics who according to him have been targeting him. According to him, this gang likes a certain kind of cinema, and they appreciate certain filmmakers’ movies only. He said, “What I see is that there is a clear hatred towards a filmmaker than a film.”
Along with naming the critics, Vanga argued that these Bollywood critics should go to China and become English tutors as other than some new English words there is hardly anything in their reviews.
He added, “It’s out of their capacity, I have seen other reviews also. The way they talk, they should go to China to teach English. Because they come up with new English words in every other video review. Other than that you won’t find anything else. Even in Kabir Singh, they were selective (in criticising) that Kabir (Shahid Kapoor) slapped, they didn’t mention that Preeti (Kiara Advani) was the first person to slap.”
On the morality aspect, he defended his movie arguing, “In a way, I understood their mental status and their IQ…If morality comes into the picture, then you can’t make this film. If everybody is going to focus just on morality, we should stop making films. Let’s just make cartoons.”
Slamming the criticism of film not being safe for children as it promotes violence, he said, “They’re saying children are walking out of the theatres in tears, high school girls are feeling unsafe; they should not be watching the film, it’s rated A.”
He agreed that from Kabir Singh, the criticism has multiplied in Animal, and it will further increase during the release of his Prabhas-starrer Spirit, but he stressed that he is unhinged by such critics stating, “Fark nahi padta, kyuki lakhon logo ko pasand aa rahi hai.”
In a separate interaction with Galatta Plus, Vanga dismissed the charge that the film is promoting Misogyny in which he referred to the critics as ‘Jokers’.
He said, “Misogyny is disrespect to women. This is the actual definition, right? So no. Even Kabir Singh, even Animal, even me as a person. I always feel my production house name is Bhadrakali Pictures and I don’t know why people think…not too many people, only these 15-20 jokers. But it’s a wrong word to use on Kabir Singh, Animal.”
As per reports, Vanga’s Animal has done business for around Rs 522 crore in India and Rs 843 crore worldwide. It’s reportedly the biggest A-rated film ever, and behind Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Pathaan, Animal is the third-biggest Indian film of 2023. Meanwhile, Vanga’s upcoming directorial ventures include Prabhas’ Spirit and Allu Arjun’s untitled film.
