Karan Johar calls ‘Animal’ the year’s best film; shares he watched it twice: 'I had tears in my eyes...'

Filmmaker Karan Johar heaped praise on Sandeep Reddy Vanga's film ‘Animal.’ During the Mega Pan India Roundtable 2023 event organized by Galatta Plus, the filmmaker acclaimed the Ranbir Kapoor starrer as the year's finest film and emphasized that its success will bring about a significant transformation in the industry.

Karan Johar said, ‘People have come up to me after I spoke about how much I loved Animal, and said, 'You have made Rocky Aur Rani,' That's the vaccination for a film like Animal. It's the opposite extreme. I said that I cannot disagree with you more, because Animal to me is the best film of the year. It took me a while to reach to this statement and a lot of courage because when you are around people, you fear judgment. Like during the time of Kabir Singh, which I also loved... I was like I am going to say this and I am going to get dirty looks from certain people but I don't care anymore.’

The director then detailed why he loved the action drama so much.

‘I loved Animal for its front-footed, absolutely conviction-based narrative storytelling, breaking grammar, breaking myths, breaking everything that you think conforms to mainstream cinema. Suddenly you have an interval block where the hero is getting bashed up and everyone's singing a song... I am like, 'Where have you seen a sequence like this?' It's genius. The end, where the two men are going for each other and they play that song... I had tears in my eyes, but there was only blood. So I was like something is wrong with me or something is wrong with him, but something put together is very right about this film. This is not an average thinking mind. This is a mind of someone who is so distinct, so individualistic that I was blown away. I saw the film twice, first to see as an audience member and second to study it. I think the success, and acceptance of Animal is game-changing. The conviction is something that I want to have,’ he said.

About ‘Animal’

'Animal' centers around a tumultuous father-son relationship and features Ranbir Kapoor in the role of Rannvijay Singh, who seeks vengeance following an assassination attempt on his father. In the film's climax, Rannvijay engages in a showdown with Abrar, ultimately defeating and killing him.

Besides Ranbir and Bobby Deol, the movie also stars Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Shakti Kapoor, Triptii Dimri, Prithviraj, and Siddhant Karnick. It has achieved a remarkable domestic box office collection of over ₹500 crore.

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