Veteran screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar has addressed the recent uproar sparked by filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga's reaction to his veiled critique of Animal, featuring Ranbir Kapoor. In an interview with Mojo Story, Javed emphasized that while Sandeep has the creative liberty to produce films like Animal, he pointed out that the director has not identified any shortcomings in his extensive 53-year film career.
“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,” said Javed Akhtar. In the same interview, the lyricist and writer, despite not having seen the film, acknowledged Sandeep's right to valorize characters, as protected by the Constitution. However, his concern was directed towards the millions who celebrated it.
For unversed, Vanga has also called out the misogyny in Akhtar’s son Farhan Akhtar’s show Mirzapur. To this, Javed Akhtar said, “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 nor 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 kuch bhi nahi nikaal paye (You couldn't find anything sexist in 53 years of my career)? What a shame.”
The controversy erupted when Javed Akhtar criticized the much-talked-about shoe-licking scene in Animal featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Triptii Dimri. At an event, he said, “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.”
Responding to Akhtar’s criticism, Vanga told Siddharth Kannan, “Why didn’t he tell the same thing to Farhan Akhtar when he was producing Mirzapur. Duniya bhar ke gaali Mirzapur ek show mai hai (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?”
On the work front, Javed Akhtar will work on Farhan Akhtar’s Don 3 and Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lahore 1947. Meanwhile, Sandeep Reddy Vanga has Prabhas’ Spirit and Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal Park. ALSO READ: REVEALED: Javed Akhtar was paid a whopping Rs. 25 lakhs to write Dunkis song ‘Nikle The Kabhi Hum Ghar Se’; is the HIGHEST fee charged by any lyricist ever
