Educator and civil servant Vikas Divyakirti, who played himself in the hit film 12th Fail, recently weighed in on the controversy surrounding director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal. In an interview, he said that the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer should not have been made. Appearing on Neelesh Misra’s Slow Interview series, Vikas Divyakirti called Animal “fuhad and badtameez” film, and said, “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?”
He also rued the controversial scene in the film where Ranbir’s character, Vijay, asks Triti Dimri’s character Zoya to lick his shoe to prove her love for him. She almost gives in, but Vijay walks away. Reacting to this scene, Vikas 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 Divyakirti is best known as the founder of an IAS coaching institute. He played himself in 12th Fail, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and is also credited as one of the film’s writers.
While Animal has received a lot of criticism from film critics and a section of the media and the audiences, the film went on to earn over Rs 900 crore at the global box office. Recently, actor Vidya Balan, who is promoting her film Do Aur Do Pyaar, had lauded the Animal filmmakers for their conviction. In an interview with Pinkvilla, Vidya had said, “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.”
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