Javed Akhtar addresses Sandeep Reddy Vanga's reaction to his comment on 'Animal'

Screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar has spoken out about filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga's reaction to his subtle criticism of Vanga's recent movie "Animal," featuring Ranbir Kapoor. 

During an interview with Mojo Story, Javed clarified that while Vanga has the freedom to make as many films as he wishes.

He said, “I was not criticising the filmmaker at all. I think in a democratic society, he has the right to make one Animal, and many Animals. I was concerned about the audience, not about the filmmaker. He has the right to make any film.”

“When he responded to me, I was honoured. In 53 years of my career, he could not find one film, one script, one scene, one dialogue, one song. So he had to go to my son's office and find a TV serial, which is neither acted, directed or written by Farhan."

"His company has produced it. Nowadays, these big companies like Excel are producing a lot of things. So one of them is this. He mentioned that. It flattered me to no end. 53 years ke career mein tum kuchh bhi nahi nikaal paye (You couldn't find anything sexist in 53 years of my career)? What a shame," Javed added.

The controversy began when Javed spoke at an event and made comments about the scene where Ranbir and Triptii Dimri's characters engage in a shoe-licking act in Animal.

He said at that time, “I believe it’s a testing time for the young filmmakers today as to what kind of characters they want to create that the society will applaud. For instance, if there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman, and if the film is a super duper hit, then that’s very dangerous."

On which Sandeep replied to Javed's critique of his movie in an interview with Siddharth Kannan.

He said, “Why didn’t he tell the same thing to Farhan Akhtar when he was producing Mirzapur. the series is full of abuses and I haven’t watched the whole show. When the show was translated to Telugu, if you watch that, then you will feel like puking. Why is he not checking his son’s work?”