RJ Balaji says he ‘felt bad’ that people enjoyed Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal helobaba.com
Actor RJ Balaji, recently seen in Run Baby Run, talked about Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal while discussing feminism in an interview with Indiaglitz. When asked about his view on feminism in films, he cited the example of Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna’s latest release, talking about how he would prefer if his films didn’t have such scenes. (Also Read: Javed Akhtar calls the success of Animal ‘dangerous’: Onus is on the audience)
‘I don’t think it’s normal’
He started out by admitting that while he had not seen Animal, he had heard the discourse around it. “I know everyone likes to say ‘watch the movie like a movie and treat it as a craft’ but it stuck with me that a set of people locked in a theatre were enjoying a guy mistreat women and hurl abuses at them,” he said, adding, “I feel bad that the audience are enjoying such films. I don’t think it’s normal to react to such scenes with enjoyment.”
He further added that he doesn’t want to be influenced to keep such scenes in his film either, just because the audience seems to like it. “I don’t want to watch and get influenced to keep similar scenes. I heard there is a scene where he (Ranbir) asks another actor (Triptii Dimri) to lick his shoe. I believe youngsters who watch the film will think it’s okay to treat women in this manner. I don’t want my films to add to that,” he said.
Animal leaves audience split
Ever since Animal, which also stars Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol in lead roles, was released on December 1, the film has received polarised reactions. While a section of the audience lauded Vanga for taking a risk with the film, apart from hailing Ranbir for pulling off the role well, another section called the film out for being problematic.
The most recent celeb to call out the film was lyricist Javed Akhtar, with the official X account of Animal responding to his statement and calling his ‘art form false’ if he doesn’t understand why Triptii’s character was asked to lick his shoe.
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