Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently spoke about his admiration for Sandeep Reddy Vanga and his 2023 film, Animal, which features Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role. During a talk on Young, Dumb & Anxious, Aaliyah Kashyap’s podcast he has thrown light on that while the movie has been lauded by many people this is not the same case with all of them. At one time she called it Animal ‘terrible’ and ‘misogynistic’ to her dad but to this the filmmaker had a different view.
Anurag Kashyap Defends Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal; Asserts People will understand its impact in 5-10 years from now.
Kashyap expressed his admiration for Vanga after talking him for long. “I met him (Sandeep Reddy Vanga) and I liked him. He’s a good guy. I also have my own concerns regarding his film (Animal) and then we invited him over here so that we could talk about it and I spent five hours with him…You know you always want to talk to people? When after Dev D (2009), I was cancelled by lots of people over having made a ‘misogynistic’ film…I mean there are times when people isolate some person then they attack someone like that is not fair,” he stated.
Kashyap stated, “This man (Sandeep), what you see is what he is.” Talking about the influence of Animal as well as non-influence of other films in Bollywood today or even later!.. In fact, according to him Post Animal Every action film looks fake and if at all when you watch Bade Miyan Chote Miyan(Featuring Akshay Kumar & Tiger Shroff) even those flips and fighting seems false because somehow the action in that film (Animal) and the use of music in that film had an impact, the technical details in the film had an impact on the audience. That will forever impact cinema.”
In January 2024, Kashyap posted pictures on Instagram showing his meeting with Vanga, calling him “the most misunderstood, judged and reviled filmmaker at the moment” and praised his honesty and vulnerability. Kashyap pointed out that Vanga was willing to receive feedback on his movie by saying “This is a person you can actually confront and talk to. Please talk to him about the problems you have with the film… The biggest game changer of Hindi cinema in the longest time and a film whose impact (good or bad), can’t be denied. And the filmmaker who takes it all on his chin. Great evening spent with him.”