Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Animal’ has set some astounding records at the box office, however it has already created some negative chatter for its themes of toxic masculinity.
This Sandeep Reddy Wanga directorial is being called out for supporting ‘toxic masculinity’ involving Ranbir Kapoor’s character. Reacting to the same, actor Siddhant Karnickwho essays a pivotal role in the film, said, “We’re not setting a precedent over here like this is how men should be.Ranbir plays a character who completely believes in being alpha and the alpha male tops the food chain and that’s the psyche of the character. That’s about it. If people want to draw parallels to themselves and society at large, then they are absolutely free to do what they want to. As storytellers, it’s our job to tell a story and it’s our job as good storytellers to tell a story intensely. We have no responsibility towards how society would respond to it.”
When asked if Ranbir’s character reflects the truth of society, he added, “His character is supposed to be an alpha man, now whether that be toxic or not is how you want to gauge it. I just see him as a very entertaining character. Does it reflect society? I don’t know. Society as a whole has its own ways and triggers. If this film triggers them to act a certain way, that’s upon their own conditioning, it’s not that this film is a social message or an awareness campaign on how human beings should be or how an individual or a man should be in a relationship. I don’t know why we are looking at this film as anything other than a film with these characters. What Ranbir played to and what I play as Varunare just characters, period.”
Welcoming the debates around the movie, Siddhant added, “But it’s good, people should keep talking more about all this toxic masculinity and create more controversy. It’ll be good for us because apparently any kind of publicity is good publicity. I would say, I do not believe in what people are saying about toxicity or masculinity or alpha-ness. Just go watch the film yourself and figure it out for yourselves. I think society is smart enough, the people who we are writing for, entertaining for, are smart enough to make their own conclusions.”
This Sandeep Reddy Wanga directorial is being called out for supporting ‘toxic masculinity’ involving Ranbir Kapoor’s character. Reacting to the same, actor Siddhant Karnickwho essays a pivotal role in the film, said, “We’re not setting a precedent over here like this is how men should be.Ranbir plays a character who completely believes in being alpha and the alpha male tops the food chain and that’s the psyche of the character. That’s about it. If people want to draw parallels to themselves and society at large, then they are absolutely free to do what they want to. As storytellers, it’s our job to tell a story and it’s our job as good storytellers to tell a story intensely. We have no responsibility towards how society would respond to it.”
When asked if Ranbir’s character reflects the truth of society, he added, “His character is supposed to be an alpha man, now whether that be toxic or not is how you want to gauge it. I just see him as a very entertaining character. Does it reflect society? I don’t know. Society as a whole has its own ways and triggers. If this film triggers them to act a certain way, that’s upon their own conditioning, it’s not that this film is a social message or an awareness campaign on how human beings should be or how an individual or a man should be in a relationship. I don’t know why we are looking at this film as anything other than a film with these characters. What Ranbir played to and what I play as Varunare just characters, period.”
Welcoming the debates around the movie, Siddhant added, “But it’s good, people should keep talking more about all this toxic masculinity and create more controversy. It’ll be good for us because apparently any kind of publicity is good publicity. I would say, I do not believe in what people are saying about toxicity or masculinity or alpha-ness. Just go watch the film yourself and figure it out for yourselves. I think society is smart enough, the people who we are writing for, entertaining for, are smart enough to make their own conclusions.”
Bobby Deol opens up about criticism over showing toxic masculinity in ‘Animal’; says ‘People don’t want to talk about things they believe doesn’t exist’
