Javed Akhtar responds to Animal director Sandeep Reddy Vanga targetting Farhan Akhtar co-produced Mirzapur: “53 years ke career mein tum kuchh bhi nahi nikaal paye”

While Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal was critically acclaimed and shattered several box office records, a section of the audience called it out for promoting toxic masculinity. One such person was popular lyricist Javed Akhtar who took a dig at the ‘lick my shoe’ comment in Ranbir Kapoor starrer. Later, even Sandeep questioned him for not pointing fingers at his son Farhan Akhtar’s show Mirzapur for such portrayal. Now, Javed Akhtar has again reacted to Animal director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s statement.

Javed Akhtar responds to Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Mirzapur remark

In an interview with Mojo Story, Javed clarified, “I was not criticising the filmmaker at all. I think in a democratic society, he has the right to make one Animal, and many Animals. I was concerned about the audience, not about the filmmaker. He has the right to make any film”.

He further took cognizance of Sandeep’s comment on Mirzapur and said, “When he responded to me, I was honoured. In 53 years of my career, he could not find one film, one script, one scene, one dialogue, one song. So he had to go to my son’s office and find a TV serial, which is neither acted, directed or written by Farhan. His company has produced it. Nowadays, these big companies like Excel are producing a lot of things. So one of them is this. He mentioned that. It flattered me to no end. 53 years ke career mein tum kuchh bhi nahi nikaal paye (You couldn’t find anything sexist in 53 years of my career)? What a shame,”

Sandeep Reddy’s comment on Mirzapur

At an event during Animal release, Javed Akhtar commented on the shoe-licking scene between Ranbir and Triptii Dimri. “If there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman, and if the film is a super duper hit, then that’s very dangerous”, the lyricist had said.

Sandeep responded to Javed’s criticism and pointed out, “Why didn’t he tell the same thing to Farhan Akhtar when he was producing Mirzapur. Duniya bhar ke gaali Mirzapur ek show mai hai (the series is full of abuses)”.

Also Read: Team Animal reacts to Javed Akhtar’s remark over ‘lick my shoe’ scene: Writer of your caliber cannot understand…