Image was shared on X. (Courtesy: moviestalkhindi )
With only two days left for the release of the much-awaited film Animal, its cast including director Sandeep Reddy Vanga are on a promotional spree, touring states across India to meet and greet their beloved fans. Amid all the promotional duties, the director took some time off to have a chat with iDream Media, where he revealed that not Shahid Kapoor but actor Ranveer Singh was his first choice to play the titular role in Kabir Singh. He also talked about the reason why Ranveer Singh rejected the offer before Shahid Kapoor came on board. Talking to iDream Media, the Kabir Singh director said, "I was continuously getting calls from Mumbai to do the remake. First, it was pitched to Ranveer Singh. I wanted to do it with him. But finally, he decided he will not do it, because it was too dark for him at that time."
Talking about how Shahid Kapoor came to be a part of the project, Sandeep Reddy Vanga continued, "Shahid's track record was a concern; none of his solo films had done ₹100 crore then, his highest was ₹65 crore. They used to say ₹55 crore, ₹65 crore is the kind of business Telugu movies do. ‘Why are you doing it with this guy? If it was Ranveer, the box office would be higher'. But I was always sure about Shahid, he's a fantastic actor.”
For the unversed, like its Telugu counterpart Arjun Reddy, Kabir Singh went on to perform well at the box office. The film starring Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani, grossed around ₹380 crore globally, shared the director in the same interview.
Meanwhile, Animal's Censor Board of Film Certification report has been released. As per an image of the report being shared widely on social media, the duration of the film is 203 minutes or 3 hours 23 minutes. In addition to awarding the film an Adults Only (A) certificate, the CBFC also asked director Sandeep Reddy Vanga to make five changes to the film. One change involves “intimate visuals,” and addressing it, the report says, “Modified the intimate visuals of Vijay and Zoya by deleting the close-up shots at TCR 02:28:37.” Additionally, CBFC ordered a word at 1 hour and 31 minutes to be modified to “Black” and the word “vastra” to be replaced with “costume”. Additionally, two undisclosed dialogues were modified to “Kabhi nahin” and “Kya bol rahe ho aap”. The word “natak” at 2 hours and 13 minutes was muted, and the subtitles were changed to “You change pads four times a month.”
Sharing the report on X [formerly Twitter], a user wrote, “#Animal CBFC Report. Run-time: 3hr 23min 29sec. Certified: A. #AnimalCensorReport.”
Speaking about the film at its trailer launch, Ranbir Kapoor said, “Animal is basically the adult-rated Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. If I had to describe this story in a line, then it's about a man who goes to any length to protect his family. That's what the core of the film is.”