Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor and Bobby Deol discover their savage and dark side with controversial film ‘Animal’

“People who get easily triggered should stay away from this film,” pronounced Bollywood’s Ranbir Kapoor while promoting his upcoming film, ‘Animal,’ in Dubai. And those with a history of a rough childhood with their dads should sit this one out too, he cautioned.

‘Animal’ — relatively bloodier and more savage than ‘Kabir Singh’ and produced again by T-series — doesn’t seem to stray from his usual flawed hero template. A violent wealthy patriarch of a dad (Anil Kapoor), a needy and brooding son who’s desperate for his emotionally stunted dad’s affections (a bulked-up Kapoor), a teary woman who loves this disturbed alpha-male of a son grappling with deep-rooted dysfunctional daddy issues (Rashmika Mandanna), boasts the signature Vanga flourishes.

If we go by Kapoor’s reductive analogy, there’s more guns, gore, and gut-wrenching agony than the cloyingly vanilla K3G in ‘Animal’, out in UAE cinemas on December 1. His co-star Bobby Deol, who was a part of this interview, also throws his weight behind his peer. On screen they play enemies, but in real life, Deol seems to have Kapoor's back.

Interestingly, Kapoor, married to actress Alia Bhatt and parent to Raha, may champion the cause of democratising art, but claims he had a violent reaction when ‘Animal’ director narrated the script for the first time. Like most viewers who were rattled and perhaps even enraged to know that Kapoor who’s known for his benign, emotionally charged roles had switched to the proverbial dark side by attaching himself to a director known for a violent brand of cinema, Kapoor had an unsettling reaction too.

“I said: ‘Excuse me,' and I went to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and I was so scared, maybe not scared but rattled. A lot of people have this perception that ‘Animal’ is about a psychopath or a cannibal … But it’s not about that. It’s about how human beings can go within complex areas and go to great lengths to protect the people they love … At first, I was scared and told him that I don’t think I can do this part. But as an actor, it was the first time I ever felt like that, and I want to not play safe.” Deol, who cannot speak much about his role, echoed this sentiment. 

In less than 24 hours, the verdict on whether Deol and Kapoor's drastic creative gamble paid off will be clear, but they appear confident of their choices. “I have reached a stage in my career where I want to change my image. I have done stuff which is out of my comfort zone like 'Ashram'. And what makes you do your best is when you break out of that comfort zone playing characters that are interesting and so complex. I was always wondering how I portray them … Our characters in ‘Animal’ are well-written … For me, a negative role can have some heroism in it," said Deol. The son of Dharmendra is an actor who seems to have re-invented himself in his 40s. After playing romantic roles and almost fading into obscurity, he made a comeback with a series of grey roles in web series like 'Ashram', in which he played a duplicitous Godman.

Apparently, his relationship with his own father, the late actor Rishi Kapoor who died of cancer, was far from ideal. “Somewhere, all of us, especially my generation — we have a very particular relationship with our fathers. There was a little bit of distance and there’s a lot of love and respect. We weren’t the best of friends or those buddies who hung out. But when my father passed away, my biggest regret was that I didn’t spend enough time with him. I could not just sit down, hang out, and just chat openly. And if you see all my films, there’s a recurring father-son conflict in my movies. I lean towards them because I feel that shortage in my life or something. I don’t do it consciously, but I just gravitate towards them.”

He has just one request to this journalist and all his legion of fans who may be quick to judge the book by its bloody cover. “Go with an open mind,” said Kapoor.

But before we let Kapoor and Deol off the hook, we had to needle Ranbir about a scene from a romantic song that invited an avalanche of memes and trolls on social media. The scene goes thus: he teaches his bride-to-be to fly a plane as he leaves the cockpit to have a quick shower. He’s off to the mountains with her to get hitched. “Having memes to your names means you are relevant in the pop culture scene … About that scene, he’s an aeronautical engineer who studied abroad and he has this fleet of private planes which he flies himself. So, there’s this auto-drive button which will make the plane float … Sandeep wanted to show that this man loves her so much that he trusts her blindly and will lay his life in her hands while he showers,” explained Kapoor. While his skewed logic behind that scene reminds you of those oft-derided Mills & Boon novels where skewed love is glorified, Kapoor was ready to fly with his director’s vision.

“I would really be floored and charmed if I could fly someone to the mountains to get married and then come back.”

While it’s too early to judge if ‘Animal’ would crash-land or skyrocket their careers into a new stratosphere, Kapoor and Deol are in for a bumpy ride since singing up a Vanga film is like plunging down without a parachute called collective goodwill.

“It’s all about the money. Remember, movies are about entertainment. We are not here to satisfy your intellectual needs. As artists, we want to be part of films that are popular and lots of people around the world will see. ‘Animal’ is a step towards that," said Kapoor. We hear him.