Animal (2023 Indian film)

Animal is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action drama film co-written, directed and edited by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and produced by T-Series Films, Bhadrakali Pictures and Cine1 Studios. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna and Triptii Dimri. The film follows Ranvijay "Vijay" Singh, a cold-blooded son of a powerful industrialist, and his troubled relationship with his father, which gets further jeopardized as he sets out on a path of vengeance and destruction after an assassination attempt on his father.
The film was officially announced in January 2021. Principal photography began in April 2022 and wrapped by April 2023, with cinematography by Amit Roy. The film's soundtrack album was composed by Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson and Harshavardhan Rameshwar. With a runtime of 201 minutes, Animal is one of the longest Indian films ever made. It was initially set for an August 2023 release but was postponed due to post-production work.
Animal was theatrically released on 1 December 2023, in standard and IMAX formats. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its cast, screenplay, performances, songs, action sequences and technical aspects, but criticism for the film's themes and graphic violence. Several commentators also accused Vanga of glorifying toxic masculinity and misogyny. The film did extremely well commercially, both domestically and internationally. It grossed between ₹905 crore (US$110 million) – ₹917 crore (US$110 million) worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing Indian film of 2023, the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film, the ninth highest-grossing Indian film, the highest-grossing A-rated Indian film, and the highest-grossing film of Ranbir Kapoor's career.
At the 69th Filmfare Awards, the film received 19 nominations, including Best Film, and won a leading six awards, including Best Actor for Ranbir Kapoor. A sequel titled Animal Park, announced in the post-credits scene, is in early development.
Uncontrollable and aggressive, Ranvijay "Vijay" Singh is deeply devoted to his wealthy tycoon-father Balbir Singh, who helms Swastik Steels, a generational steel empire established by his father. However, Balbir is extremely workaholic and allocates little attention to his family. When Vijay intimidates his sister Reet's bullies with his father's licensed AK-47, Balbir is enraged at having a "criminal" for a son and ousts him to a boarding school in the United States. He returns home after years on the account of his father's sixtieth birthday and his feelings for his betrothed childhood sweetheart Gitanjali resurface. During Balbir's birthday party, Vijay indulges in a heated exchange with Reet's husband Varun and calls himself illegitimate when Balbir takes Varun's side, prompting the former to expel him from the household. Vijay marries Gitanjali, who calls off her wedding against her family's assent, and they move to the United States.
Eight years later, Vijay returns home with Gitanjali and their kids after Balbir falls prey to an assassination attempt at a golf club. He reconciles with his father and takes charge of the family and the company in his stead. Consumed with vengeance against those trying to kill his father, Vijay openly threatens to slit the throats of the perpetrators during a speech. Distrusting the guards employed for Balbir's security, Vijay seeks help from his estranged cousins living in their hometown, who leave their families for time-being and accompany him. Vijay recruits Kailash Petkar as a body double for his father but Kailash is eventually killed by Asrar Haque, who is revealed to be involved in the earlier assassination attempt on Balbir. Discovering that Varun is involved with the perpetrators, Vijay publicly strangles him to death at a conference while Asrar, who is one of the audience, watches on. Vijay and his cousins meet with Freddy, a notorious arms dealer, to receive a machine gun manufactured on Vijay's designs at a hotel. Asrar and his assailants pounce on the hotel but Vijay takes them down using the gun and eventually kills Asrar but is severely wounded and hospitalized. Balbir and the family realize that Vijay is left with a failed urinary system, a damaged sense of hearing and an urgent need for Heart transplantation. Vijay's cold-blooded behaviour gradually damages his relationship with Gitanjali. Soon, he undergoes a successful transplantation.
In Scotland, Abrar Haque, Asrar's violent and mute elder brother, is informed of his death during his third wedding; he subsequently kills the messenger out of rage. While Vijay begins to recuperate, he is introduced to Zoya, fiancee of his donor. He finds her attractive and they pursue an extra-marital affair. After a Rolls Royce gifted to her by Vijay explodes, Zoya confesses to Vijay that she was actually sent by Abrar to honey trap him and that Aziz, another younger brother of Abrar, underwent a plastic surgery to look like Vijay and subsequently kill Vijay's family under the guise of him. She also asserts that Abrar might be related to him and believes that they have caused the explosion. Vijay discloses to have been aware of her true purpose and reveals that he has played along to discover the mastermind's identity and caused the explosion himself; he then leaves her, asking her to go wherever she wants. Later, Rajdheer Singh, Balbir's father, reveals that he had banished his younger brother Shamsher Singh from his family and business due to his immoral antics; his son, who had converted to Islam, came to ask for a share in the property but was refused by Balbir. A humiliated Shamsher immolated himself, rendering his grandson Abrar, the only witness, mute out of trauma. Vijay realizes that Abrar and his brothers have been trying to exact revenge.
Vijay confesses to being involved in an affair with Zoya to Gitanjali, who breaks down, states that his intense love for his father has destroyed his rationality and asks for divorce. The next day, Vijay and his cousins fly to Scotland in search of Abrar and reach his residence, only to find him and his brother Abid missing. Vijay threatens Abrar's three wives and one of them eventually reveals that he will be leaving the country soon; Vijay leaves to confront Abrar while Abrar's third wife, who has gone into labor, is admitted into an hospital. Vijay manages to obstruct Abrar's flight from taking off and they engage in a long vigorous duel on the runway. Amidst the fight, Vijay requests Abrar to put aside their differences and be like a family but is brushed off, prompting him to slit his throat as promised, killing him.
Vijay returns home and during Diwali, he discovers that Balbir has been suffering from Acute lymphoblastic leukemia and has only a few months to live. Vijay confronts Balbir for being ignorant to his love for him and Balbir seeks an apology from Vijay for his persistent insensitivity. While Vijay bitterly cries over his father's disease in front of Mishra, his father's family-like assistant, and his cousins, Gitanjali prepares to leave him with the kids. However, his son Abhay gets out of the car and runs towards him, followed by Gitanjali, and embraces him.
In a post-credits scene, in Istanbul, Aziz Haque has completely transformed himself to resemble Vijay; Zoya is pregnant but it is unclear about who among Vijay and Aziz is the father of the child. Aziz violently butchers two of Vijay's cousins and proposes marriage to Abrar's third wife, who gave birth to twins. He then sets out to seek vengeance against Vijay with Abid.
In September 2019, it was reported that Sandeep Reddy Vanga would turn into a producer for his next directional venture in Bollywood. It was further reported that he would produce the venture along with Murad Khetani, Ashwin Varde, Bhushan Kumar and Kishan Kumar under Cine1 Studios and T-Series. On 10 October, the company's and Vanga's new production banner Bhadrakali Pictures announced their collaboration for Vanga's next directional; marking their second collaboration after Kabir Singh (2019). In early December, Vanga was reported to have approached Ranbir Kapoor to play the lead role in the film. ETimes reported that Kapoor was "keen" to work on the film, however, would finalize it only after hearing the final script, which was still progressing writing.
In June 2020 however, it was reported that Vanga met Kapoor in January and narrated another script, which was reportedly titled Devil. In late December, Anil Kapoor was reported to be part of the cast. On 1 January 2021, the company's made an official public announcement of the venture, revealing also the title of the film and the crew. In late April, Bobby Deol and Parineeti Chopra were cast, with the former playing lead antagonist role, while the latter plays lead actress role.
In March 2022, it was reported that Rashmika Mandanna was to dance in an item number for the film. The same month, Mandanna had replaced Chopra, as Vanga was not satisfied with the casting of Chopra during photoshoots. On 2 April, Mandanna's commitments were officially announced. Mandanna called it "a dream come true." Vanga cited Kill Bill as the inspiration for the film's action sequences. Similarly, Kapoor's rockstar look was inspired by Michael Jackson, as reported by hairstylist Aalim Hakim. In 2025, during the pre-release event of Thandel, Vanga revealed that it was the film's lead actor Naga Chaitanya whose style of long hair and beard as well as real-life outfits inspired the protagonist's looks.
Principal photography began in Manali in April 2022. The second schedule was in Mumbai in May 2022 and filming was held at Pataudi Palace in July 2022. The next schedules were held in Delhi and Punjab. The filming was wrapped up in mid-March 2023. The film resumed in England and Scotland beginning in April with a schedule of 15–20 days.
The film score is composed by Harshavardhan Rameshwar, who scored Reddy's previous films Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake Kabir Singh. The songs featured in the film are composed by AR Rahman, Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson, Harshvardhan Rameshwar, Bhupinder Babbal. Lyrics were written by Manoj Muntashir, Raj Shekhar, Siddharth-Garima, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Ashim Kemson and Bhupinder Babbal.
The album features eight tracks with four singles—"Hua Main", "Satranga", "Papa Meri Jaan" and "Arjan Vailly"—were released before the audio launch. The soundtrack to Animal was released at a music launch and fan experience event held on 24 November 2023 at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai. A deluxe edition album was released on 15 January 2024, featuring nine additional tracks.
The teaser was released on 28 September 2023 coinciding with Kapoor's birthday. Arijit Singh held a concert in Chandigarh where Ranbir Kapoor joined him to promote film with the song Satranga on 4 November 2023. During the semi-final of 2023 Cricket World Cup, Ranbir Kapoor attended the stadium to watch the match and for promotional activities of the film on 15 November 2023. The teaser was showcased on Burj Khalifa on 18 November 2023, they also conducted film promotions at Marq Club and Dubai's Global Village on the same day in Dubai. The trailer was released on 23 November 2023. The cast appeared on the Unstoppable talk show, which premiered on Aha on 24 November 2023. They also appeared on Indian Idol. Before the pre-release event they conducted press conference tours in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The film held its pre-release event in Hyderabad on 27 November 2023 with Mahesh Babu and S. S. Rajamouli as the chief guests.
Animal was initially set for an 11 August 2023 release, but was postponed due to post-production and dubbing work, as well as to avoid clashing with Jailer, Gadar 2 and Oh My God 2. It was theatrically released on 1 December 2023 in standard and IMAX formats in Hindi with dubbed versions in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. The film was released across 4000 screens in India, the screen count was impacted due to the clash with Sam Bahadur which was releasing on the same day.
The film had planned to premiere in North America on 30 November 2023, a day before its release. In the United States, it will be screened in 888 theaters, marking the highest number for a Hindi film, surpassing the screen count of Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022) and Jawan (2023).
Animal received an A (adults only) certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, a day prior to its trailer release, for strong bloody violence, profanity and some sexuality. It was classified 18 by the British Board of Film Classification for the same reason.
AA Films acquired the theatrical rights of the film to distribute in North India and overseas. Sri Venkateswara Creations acquired the distribution rights for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. E4 Entertainment and AP International acquired distribution rights for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. KVN Productions acquired distribution rights for Karnataka. Moksha Movies and Nirvana Cinemas acquired theatrical distribution rights for North America.
The digital streaming rights of Animal were acquired by Netflix. The film was premiered on Netflix from 26 January 2024. While Vanga initially stated that it would have an additional 8 minutes of footage, it was later announced that Netflix would stream the theatrical cut with no additional scenes. An English dub, with actor Nakuul Mehta lending his voice to Ranbir Kapoor's character, and actress Samridhii Shukla lending her voice to Triptii Dimri's character; began streaming on 8 February 2024.
On Netflix, Animal became one of the most watched films with 11.7 million viewership in first two weeks, surpassing films Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire and Dunki. Animal ranked in the top 10 in six countries in the first week, 17 countries in the second, and continued to maintain the ranking in the following weeks in nine countries.
Animal broke several box-office records for a Hindi film. The film had the fourth-biggest advance booking in Hindi cinema, and the third-highest for 2023 after Jawan and Pathaan. On its opening day, the film collected a total India net of ₹63.8 crore (US$7.4 million) second highest after Jawan, worldwide gross of ₹116 crore (US$14 million) including overseas gross of US$5.5 million (₹46 crore). Eventually it became the highest non-holiday opening of all time for a Hindi film breaking the previous record held by Ranbir Kapoor's Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva. On its second day, netted over ₹67 crore and over ₹70 crore on third day in India for a three days total net collection of ₹201 crore and became one of the fastest Hindi film to achieve this after Jawan, making it third top opening weekend for Hindi films. Worldwide it earned over ₹100 crore (US$12 million) for three consecutive days during its opening weekend, for a total worldwide weekend gross collection of ₹356 crore (US$42.1 million). It had one of the highest Hindi net collection on its first Monday and Tuesday. In the first week it earned a total worldwide gross collection of ₹563 crore (US$66 million). On its 8th day, the film surpassed the lifetime worldwide collection of Sanju (2018) and becomes the highest-grossing film of Kapoor's career. On its 17th day, the film reached ₹500 crore net collection across all languages in India and on the same day the film crosses 3 crore footfalls in India. On its 35th day, the film reached ₹500 crore net in Hindi and ₹550 crore across all languages in India, eventually it became the second-highest net grossing Hindi film in India. Box Office India declared the film an All Time Blockbuster.
In the United States, the film was released alongside Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, Silent Night, Godzilla Minus One, and The Shift, and made $6.1 million from 888 theatres in its opening weekend, finishing in seventh place, behind the second weekend totals of Wish and Napoleon. Worldwide, it emerged as the No. 1 film on its opening weekend with the total of $42.1 million including the $13.88 million of international markets, surpassing all the films globally. In its first week the film earned over $19.2 million from international markets.
The film has grossed over ₹662.33 crore (US$77 million) in India and ₹255.49 crore (US$30 million) in overseas for a worldwide gross collection ranging between ₹905 crore (US$110 million) – ₹917.82 crore (US$110 million).
Animal received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 30% of 27 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Overlong, overly violent, and thinly written, Animal goes wildly over the top to little avail." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 33 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
Awarding the film 4.5/5 stars, Bollywood Hungama praised "Ranbir Kapoor’s outstanding performance, clap-worthy massy scenes, and interval block." Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Animal is relentless as a euphoric medley of feral rage and dance of the dysfunctional. The twists go on well until end credits as more blood is splattered our way." Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Animal is an adrenaline experience which will have polarising views but you can't deny its entertaining quotient, breathtaking performances and storytelling." Puja Awasthi of The Week gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Animal for all its blood and gore, is the story of a son’s aching desire for his father’s approval. Why even its ballads are less romantic, more revenge. And its female characters for all their luminosity, are just props".
Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times found it "an absolute massy, entertaining and extremely violent thriller which doesn't believe in conforming to the norms", while adding that the extreme violence might be off-putting for some. Titas Chowdhury of News18 gave 3.5/5 stars, labelled it "dark, loud and garish but also unapologetic", and thought that Ranbir Kapoor "breathes life into this undesirable character with a lot of charisma and swag". Abhimanyu Mathur of DNA India rated the film 3.5/5 and opined, "Animal takes everything that was problematic and increases it several notches. It is downright the most violent Hindi film I have seen, and also one of the most inherently toxic and misogynist. The amazing part is that it is still very well made and entertaining, enhanced further by yet another great performance from Kapoor".
Conversely, Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India gave 2.5/5 stars and termed the film "all swag and no substance derailed family drama"; she was critical of "Vanga's take on women or violence" but praised Ranbir's "raw sex appeal and unmatched intensity". India Today's Anvita Singh gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Ranbir Kapoor is stellar in problematic, paper-thin film." Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote "Ranbir is on fire, inhabiting to a frightening degree Vijay's delusional personal war. Reptile-eyed even at his smoldering best, Kapoor's career-best performance makes Animal tough to stomach, but equally difficult to ignore".
In a negative review, Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express expressed disappointment that the performances of Ranbir and Anil Kapoor had been "wasted in this pointless, vile tale." She later named it the worst film of 2023. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "The sickeningly violent father-son action drama rarely pauses for breath." Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote: "Sandeep Reddy Vanga's film has the kind of writing you'll find in BDSM erotica like Fifty Shades of Grey, but presented with the same earnestness of 'pure love' that we saw in Arjun Reddy." Phuong Le of The Guardian gave 1/5 stars and wrote "Animal sinks even further into regressive depths, resulting in one of the vilest protagonists to have graced the big screen." Pranati A S of Deccan Herald gave 1/5 stars and wrote "If you thought Arjun Reddy was toxic, then Animal will rattle your cage."
Amid the controversial reception about alleged glorification of violence and misogyny, the film was defended by some filmmakers such as Ram Gopal Varma, Anurag Kashyap, Vikram Bhatt, and Sanjay Gupta as well as actresses Rashmika Mandanna, Sargun Mehta, Indira Krishnan, and Bhumi Pednekar. Mandanna and Krishnan were part of the film. Apart from this, actors like Emraan Hashmi and Rajkummar Rao have also liked as well as defended the film.
Conversely, the film was criticised by filmmakers Kiran Rao, Varun Grover and Neeraj Ghaywan, actresses Parvathy, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kangana Ranaut, actor Avinash Tiwary and lyricists Javed Akhtar and Swanand Kirkire. Vanga had lashed out against actors and filmmakers criticising the film. Furthermore, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj had mixed reactions about the film.
The film's post-credits scene teases a sequel titled Animal Park, which was confirmed in December 2023 by Vanga. Shortly after the film's release, Vanga said the sequel would be "darker" and "meaner" than its predecessor. In an interview, Kapoor revealed Vanga had prepared and narrated a few scenes for the sequel to him.
In 2024, Vanga revealed that the shooting will commence in 2026. Saurabh Sachdeva, who played Abid in the film, similarly revealed that the sequel could begin filming in 2026 or 2027 due to both Vanga and Kapoor being busy with their respective projects, Spirit and Ramayana. Kapoor later revealed the director's plans for a third film.