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Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who declared his undying devotion to fellow director Sandeep Reddy Vanga after the release and success of the latter’s Animal, recently interacted with him in front of an enthusiastic crowd, where they discussed the hit film in detail. RGV opened up about what he liked and disliked about Animal, which attracted controversy upon release for its perceived misogyny and graphic violence. The video of RGV and Vanga’s chat was shared on RGV’s YouTube channel. The Satya filmmaker, seen as a trailblazer, said that he got up and applauded during the scene in which Ranbir Kapoor’s character walks into a classroom with an assault rifle – this was one of the many scenes that were criticised by a section of the audience. RGV said that it was in this moment that he grew to love the protagonist. Underplaying the importance of stories in filmmaking, he said that he didn’t care for the film’s emotional core – the father-son relationship between Ranbir and Anil Kapoor’s characters. Also read – Ram Gopal Varma on the violence in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal: ‘Ranbir Kapoor’s scenes haunt me even now’ He said, “For me, the moment this guy comes back with a machine gun, I decided to love the film. After that, I didn’t care what happens in the rest of the film. That was my moment of liking the person. Similarly, I never connected with the story of Animal. For example, his love for his father is the last thing that affected me. I was constantly looking for the highs, and I believe that’s what works in cinema.” RGV compared films to human beings, and tentatively told Vanga that he skips past all the father-son scenes in his repeat watches of Animal. “Different people will have different takes on story, depending on their experiences in life. It’s like how a person may be liked by someone and not liked by someone based on their relationships, and a film works exactly in the same way… I don’t know if you will take this as a compliment, but on all my repeat viewings of Animal, I’ve always fast-forwarded the father scenes. We pick up our favourite scenes. You might have done it for the emotion of the father-son story, but I do not believe it worked because of that,” he said. Gushing further about the machine gun scene, RGV said, “The only time in the last 20 years that I got up and clapped in the theatre was when he got the gun. I felt like a mass audience. It’s an idea. It wouldn’t have worked if it was a hockey stick. Only a machine gun. And I would’ve never taken a decision like that. Everybody laughed, but that was not because of the humour. Even if the scene started with the full figure of him, it wouldn’t have worked.” After the film’s release in 2023, RGV had taken to social media and declared that he wants to lick both ‘Ranbir and Sandeep’s shoes’ as a gesture of appreciation. Animal grossed over Rs 900 crore worldwide. Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates . Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express . None
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