Siddharth Kannan, in his interview with Sandeep Reddy Vanga, read out what Javed Akhtar said about 'Animal'. To which the director said, "It is very clear that he did not watch the film. It’s very clear in that comment that he did not see the entire film. Now, if someone is talking without watching the film, what can I say about them?"

He continued, "Obviously, you feel bad because it is very clear that he has not seen the film and not only about him, anybody who is throwing stones at an artwork, why don’t they check their surroundings first?”

"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 and I haven’t watched the whole show. When the show was translated to Telugu, if you watch that, then you will feel like puking. Why is he not checking his son’s work?”, he added.

For the unversed, in 2023, Javed Akhtar criticising 'Animal' had said, “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 the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous.”

In the film, there was a scene where Ranbir Kapoor's character Ranvijay was seen asking Triptii Dimri’s character Zoya to lick his shoe.

'Animal' also stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Suresh Oberoi, Shakti Kapoor and Prem Chopra. It is currently streaming on Netflix.