'Animal' makers say 'All your art form is big FALSE' to Javed Akhtar post his comments, get slammed by netizens

Days after Javed Akhtar took a swipe at “Animal”, the team of the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer on Sunday clapped back at the veteran lyricist-writer asking to “let love be free from the politics of gender”. Akhtar , who along with former writing partner Salim Khan, is known for penning films such as “Zanjeer”, “Deewar”, and “Mr India”, recently said the commercial success of films with problematic scenes was a “dangerous” trend. While he didn’t mention the name of “ Animal ”, the screenwriter cited the example of the film’s controversial bootlicking scene featuring Ranbir and Triptii Dimri, who play Ranvijay and Zoya. In response, the “ Animal ” team on X tagged Akhtar and wrote: “Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE… Let love be free from the politics of gender… (sic).”

Directed by Sandeep Vanga, “Animal” emerged as the most divisive film of 2023 which received criticism for its graphic content, extreme violence, and treatment of female characters. It’s also noteworthy that the movie is one of the top earning Hindi films of the year with ₹ 900 crore at box office globally. In the post shared by the film’s official X page, the team further said had a woman asked a man to lick her shoe, the moment would have been celebrated in the name of “feminism”. Netizens furious Here are some scathing reactions the post by the makers triggered on social media:

What Javed Akhtar said He said, “It’s very dangerous when a movie, in which a man tells a woman to lick his shoe, and believes that slapping a girl is normal, works at the box office.” He added, “People tell me that they are not liking the songs of recent times. But only 5-6 people are responsible for the making of the song. A song like Choli Ke Peeche Kya hai was made by 8-10 people. They aren’t the real problem. The real problem is that the song became superhit, it was liked by millions. This is what I’m afraid of.” With added inputs from agencies