Indian cinema, especially Bollywood, is often criticised for stereotyping Sikhs and misrepresenting them on-screen. But Sikh actors Manjot Singh and Amanjot Singh, who were a part of the latest blockbuster Animal, were impressed with Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s vision for their characters in the film. They recently shared how Sandeep was careful about not offending the Sikh community and often confirmed with them if they could do what he asked them to before shooting a scene.
Amanjot, while speaking to Siddharth Kannan, shared that Sandeep believes that Sikhs are “not meant” for comic roles. The filmmaker told the actor, “I feel Sardars are not made for comedy. Their attitude, nature, their history, it is not made for comedy. I don’t look at Sardars for comedy.” Amanjot says Sandeep was able to say this as he knows a lot about sardars. This knowledge, the actor said, came from his spending a lot of time with his Sikh and Punjabi friends during his college days.
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Actor Vikram Bakshi feels that Sandeep Reddy Vanga, with every film, is “breaking stereotypes” which have been embedded in the Indian film industry for a long time now. He added, “When did you last see a Sikh fictional character so serious? Even we had comedy, but it was situational. Aise bina baat ki comedy nahi hai (It is not nonsense comedy).”
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Manjot Singh recalled the day he went for the film’s look test, Sandeep strictly ordered the hairstylist and makeup artist to never “touch” his beard. Manjot said, “Sandeep sir’s vision for Sardars was, ‘You are meant for heroic deeds.’ At several places (in the film), he used to ask us, ‘Can we do this?’ Like, I am not cutting my beard. I remember the day we went for the look test. There was a makeup artist Rebecca, and there was a hairstylist. He told Sandeep sir, ‘Sir, inka ye jo yahan pe hair hai (pointing towards his cheek hair) isko thread karna hai‘ (Sir, we need to remove his facial hair) But Sandeep sir told them, ‘No, don’t ever touch his beard.'”
However, despite being careful about not offending the Sikh culture, some viewers took offence to a scene where Ranbir Kapoor’s character Ranvijay is smoking and the smoke goes on the face of a Sikh character. Reacting to the criticism, Amanjot clarified, “It was not intentional. It was just a scene where Ranbir was smoking and he turned around to look at the Sardar, so it appeared as if the smoke came on the sardar’s face. It was not planned like that.”
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The actor emphasised, “In fact, before every scene, he would give us the freedom, if we can do this or not. He dealt with everything with the utmost sensitivity.”
Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Tripti Dimri, and Rashmika Mandanna in the lead roles, was among the highest-grossing films of 2023. However, there was a section of the audience which criticised the movie for the glorification of violence and misogyny.
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