‘It’s for the purpose of that…’: Animal’s Saloni Batra Defends Ranbir’s College Shooting Scene
December 10, 2023Animal, released a week ago, was a huge hit on opening day. It’s Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s third film after Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh. Like those movies, it has sparked controversy for scenes that some see as sexist and harmful. One scene shows Ranbir Kapoor entering his sister’s college with a gun to punish her bullies. Saloni Batra, who plays his sister, defends the scene.
Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Saloni said, “I’m an artist; I’m here to be a part of storytelling. As you can see, people are loving the film; they’re appreciating everything—how sir has put everything together, what people are feeling when they’re sitting in the theatre and watching the film with the background score, with the dialogues, with whatever is happening.”
She continued, “Of course, the characters are flawed, but you make stories on flawed characters. These are inspirations, and hence, you put them on the screen to show them to the audience to sit and enjoy in a theatre. Sandeep sir is so legendary with his craft, with his filmmaking, he knows how to reach the audience. Obviously, a character who has not gotten love from his father is going to be flawed. When we write stories, we always get inspired by real characters in life. Now it’s about also the audience understanding what is right and what is wrong. We can’t be sitting and preaching.”
“That does not happen in real life, and it should not happen. People have loved it, and how he’s devised everything in that scene. It is cinematic, and it’s for the film; it’s for the purpose of that character. So, I don’t think people should take back wrong things from it,” Saloni said about the scene in which a young Ranbir enters a college with a gun.
