Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal, which released on Friday, has received mixed reviews from the critics, with many calling it toxic, gore and problematic. It is directed by Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh fame Sandeep Reddy Vanga.

Arjun (Vijay Deverakonda) slapping his girlfriend Preethi (Shalini Pandey) horrified many when Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Telugu film, Arjun Reddy, released in theatres. He made his film’s Hindi adaptation, Kabir Singh, and took no cue from the audience’s disapproval and retained every bit of the toxic masculinity that made him popular from his first film. Years after the release of Kabir Singh, Sandeep came back to the theatres this Friday with Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor which is being panned as an even more toxic, controversial, gore and problematic film.

Ranbir Kapoor in a still from Animal.

Amid this criticism, an earlier interview of Aamir Khan is currently going viral on Reddit in which the actor poignantly explains how ‘directors who aren’t that talented’ use violence as a tool to make their films successful.

Sharing his perspective on showing violence in films, Aamir said, “These are a few emotions that are very easy to provoke in the audience. Violence is one of these emotions is another. These two emotions are most easy to provoke in a human being. The directors who aren’t that talented in creating a story and in showing emotions and creating situations, they depend heavily on violence to make their films work. They think that if they show a lot of violence in the film their film will be successful. I think this is a very wrong thinking. It is possible that they get success sometimes by doing this but this harms the society very much and I think it is a wrong thing to do.”

He added, “Those who are in the cinema are morally responsible to a certain extent. The audience, youngsters who are watching us, it definitely affects their minds. We should keep this in mind when we make a film that we don’t show something that leaves a bad impact on the new generation. I don’t say that there should be no violence in films. It depends on the subject but there are ways of showing.”

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Animal is going strong at the box office. The film has surpassed the Rs 100 crore mark in India by minting Rs 129.80 crore in just two days of its release. Apart from Ranbir, the film stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna and Tripti Dimri in pivotal roles.