Vikas Divyakirti of 12th Fail calls out Animal: ‘Itni fuhad aur badtameez film’

Educator, YouTube and IAS coach Vikas Divyakirti is not a fan of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal. He has called the film ‘vulgar’, which will affect the young minds negatively. (Also read: Ranbir Kapoor addresses Animal's ‘toxic masculinity’ criticism and more in new video: 5 takeaways)

'Animal takes society 10 years back'

In an interview with radio personality Neelesh Misra, Vikas gave an honest but brutal opinion on Animal. "A film like Animal takes our society back by 10 years. A film like this should not be made. You earned money. You showed that your hero behaves like an animal. There should be some social value, or are people working only for financial value?”

Talking particularly about one scene in which Ranbir Kapoor's character asks a woman (played by Tripti Dimri) to lick his shoe to prove her loyalty to him, he said, "After watching the film, what if some boys who are of a feudal mindset and are not that mature want to test their girlfriend’s love by asking them to lick their shoe, what then? Itni fuhad aur badtameez film hum bana rahein hai then it is very sad (It is sad when we make such careless and mean-spirited films) but both kind of forces are always there in the world.”

Vikas played himself in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 12th Fail, starring Vikrant Massey as the lead. Vikas runs an IAS coaching institute and his YouTube videos often go viral on social media.

About Animal

Animal was a blockbuster upon release. It earned ₹900 crore worldwide and was Ranbir Kapoor's most successful film ever. However, it also received criticism for promoting toxic masculinity, extra-marital affairs and violent behaviour. The film also starred Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna.

Many celebrities have commented on Animal since its release. Most recently, Vidya Balan also spoke about it. "Conviction is the name of the game here. We are told content is king. But you can have great content told unconvincingly. Animal is a great example of that. I don’t mean that it was not good content, but they were not apologetic and second-guessing. They told the story unabashedly. And look at the way the film worked. While telling a story, be unapologetic,” she told Pinkvilla.