It’s a year of big Bollywood clashes at the box office. After OMG 2 and Gadar 2 had the clash of sequels on August 11, Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and Vicky Kaushal starrer Sam Bahadur are both releasing in theatres on December 1 st . While Sam Bahadur’s release date was announced a year ago, the makers of Animal chose the same date, raising quite a few eyebrows. Perhaps it was easier to compete with director Meghana Gulzar’s film than taking on Shah Rukh Khan’s film Dunki or Prabhas’ Salaar releasing later in the month.
Unfortunately, badly behaved men have always generated good results at the box office. Perhaps that’s why, in spite of the A rating and long running time, Animal has had a tremendous response ever since advance bookings opened and is currently miles ahead of Sam Bahadur in terms of projected opening day revenues. As per a post on Sacnilk Entertainment’s page on X, formerly Twitter dated November 29, approximately 5 lakh tickets of Animal had been sold through advance bookings indicating a possible opening day revenue of Rs 14 crores. Sam Bahadur in the meanwhile had managed to sell about 38,556 tickets indicating an opening day revenue of a little over a crore.
Sam Bahadur is based on the life of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, a decorated Indian officer who was Chief of Army Staff and part of five wars for the nation. Animal, as per the trailer, is about a man with what can only be called psychosis inducing daddy issues. After the deeply disturbing and disturbingly successful Kabir Singh, where the leading man was constructed out of red flags, Animal seems to have Ranbir Kapoor playing Kabir on steroids. Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who made misogyny great again, has changed the object of obsessive affection from Preeti to Papa (father), and amped up all the problematic behaviour, as if to prove a point to those who criticised his earlier films.
But Vanga is not alone in celebrating toxic male behaviour. Over the years in Bollywood, we have had innumerable instances where a man gets away with almost everything from harassment, adultery and domestic violence.
Extramarital affairs have also been a recurring theme in our films. While films like Silsila and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna chose drama to process the ramifications of people cheating on their partners, adultery as a theme has largely been dealt with using crass jokes in ensemble cast films. Whether it’s No Entry, Biwi No 1, Garam Masala, Heyy Baby, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, Gharwali Baharwali or Masti and its torturous sequels; a man cheating on his female partner is supposed to be treated with sympathy, understanding and humour.
Even in the seemingly harmless Sooraj Barjatya films, the women were homemakers by default not choice. The iconic Prem is respectful of elders but says nothing when his sister- in-law slaves in the kitchen all day to feed three adult men in the household. It’s like the men in Mr. Barjatya’s films said to domestic responsibilities, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?
In the hugely successful Dabbang, Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey threatens to slap Sonakshi Sinha and almost forcibly marries her. Rehna Hain Tere Dil Mein romanticised Madhavan cutting off Dia Mirza’s telephone connection, posing to be a prospective groom and entering her home on multiple occasions. In Cocktail, Saif Ali Khan’s character Gautam claimed he wanted casual relationships, till he rather falls for the shy Indian girl who can be more willingly domesticated.
Ranbir himself has played red flag riddled men in the past. As Rohan In Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar, he tamed his independent and nuclear family-seeking girlfriend (the shrew) into living with his large joint family. He played the role of actor Sanjay Dutt in Sanju, a man we were asked to empathise with simply because he is a man, a movie star and famous.
There is no harm in making films with flawed men or better still, flawed women, because heaven knows we are tired of being put on pedestals of perfection. But to glorify or justify a man cheating on his partner, slapping a woman, holding her by her throat, or repeatedly resorting to aggression and violence as an expression of emotional pain, is unnecessary and irresponsible.
Sadly, with films like Animal, Kabir Singh or any of the examples cited earlier, we don’t just justify toxic behaviour and/or violence by heterosexual men against cis women, we also create rigid definitions of what it means to be a man. A real man takes revenge, a real man controls his wife or girlfriend, a real man sleeps with over 300 women and announces it like a conquest, a real man stalks a woman he loves and uses a false identity to enter her home. This celebration of a certain type of masculinity not just impacts heterosexual men, but also those who identify as gay, trans or non-binary.
One can only wish that come 2024, this trend of hero centric big budget films celebrating male aggression, whether it’s Pathaan, Jawan, Tiger 3 or now Animal, finally comes to an end. The tide will hopefully turn, and we will find audiences for films and filmmakers that aren’t afraid to be more inclusive, innovative and most importantly, sensitive.
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