Animal: Ram Gopal Varma says Sandeep Reddy Vanga should not be called a 'South director', here's why

Ram Gopal Varma and Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Director Ram Gopal Varma has gone on record to talk about the recently released Ranbir Kapoor-starrer 'Animal'. The movie, helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, has been under fire due to its misogynistic nature. Now, Ram Gopal Varma has said that 'Animal' cannot be classified as a South Indian film because Sandeep Reddy Vanga would have stopped at nothing to make the film even if he came from a northern state. In a new interview, RGV has even said that South directors are 'shell shocked' by Animal's success.

Ram Gopal Varma talked about how Hindi cinema was going through its rough path for a couple of years where nothing seemed to be working at the box office, while South films were doing much better. Ram Gopal Varma said, "If you take Baahubali as the beginning of (this trend), KGF pretty much solidified it. But the point is, everyone in the South only makes those kind of films. But not all of them work… Directors from the South have always been doing that. I don't know a single Hindi film director from today's time who believed in this hero-masala, catering to the front-benchers, not having any logic, creating constant cinematic highs… That kind of template, no one had the conviction in Bombay."

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"Either they are from south Bombay, or they have been educated in America and don't know who the masses are. Interetingly, if you look at it, most directors in the South are very uneducated people. It's a very interesting thing. That could be a reason they're so rooted and they know exactly what the man on the road feels. They're not well-versed in English films, which is one of the reasons they understand the pulse of the masses more than the educated guys who grew up on Hollywood films." He explained.

Talking about why Sandeep Reddy Vanga should not be classified as a 'South director', he said, "South is more shocked by Animal than Bollywood. Every director I know is shell-shocked, because they've never seen a film like this," he said.

'Animal' faced a clash with Vicky Kaushal's biographical drama 'Sam Bahadur'. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, the real-life story of Sam Manekshaw also stars Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh.

Helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, 'Animal' also stars Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandana, Shakti Kapoor, and Triptii Dimri. It depicts a story about a father-son relationship, played by Anil and Ranbir Kapoor. Ranbir's character is protective and obsessive about his father's love, and he is seen threatening everybody who comes in the way of his love for his father. The 3-hour, 21-minute-long film was released in five languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam.