Actor Indira Krishna, who played the role of Rashmika Mandanna’s mother in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal (2023), has no qualms admitting that she “loved working” with the controversial director. Krishna’s comment comes days after actor Adil Hussain said he would never be part of Animal even if he was offered ₹100-200 crore. The Ranbir Kapoor-starrer had emerged a blockbuster last year despite getting polarising reviews with many criticising it for propagating toxic masculinity and misogyny.

Stating that she was “surprised” at Hussain’s comments about Animal and the film’s director, Krishna says, “I completely respects Adil; he’s a fine artist, but differences of opinions do come between actors and directors. I think that’s his [personal] view and his experience with Sandeep, but I have had a different experience and view about my director.”

While Hussain has been critical of Vanga’s Animal, the actor had previously worked with him in Kabir Singh, a film that too had attracted criticism for being misogynistic. Later on, however, Hussain had said that he regrets having been involved with the film. This public expression of regret did not sit well with Vanga who called Hussain “greedy” and said he in turn regretted casting the actor in his film. Vanga even suggested he would replace Hussain’s face in the film with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). This led to a verbal altercation between the two.

Weighing in on the conversation surrounding toxic masculinity and misogyny portrayed in Animal, Krishna defends Vanga’s approach. “I definitely support Sandeep Reddy Vanga because when you watch a film you have to be very open to what the director is trying to say and what the characters are trying to portray,” she says.

Referring to Rannvijay’s character played by Ranbir, Krishna elaborates, “He was a casanova. He had anger issues. He had issues with his father and he had some kind of trauma. That is the reason he would be someone like ‘Why should I respect a woman?’ And hence, he was shown the way he was in the film.”

One of the scenes in Animal where Ranbir sleeps with Triptii Dimri’s character Zoya and then tell her to lick his shoes drew a lot of backlash. Reacting to that, Krishna opines, “Here, it is the director’s vision of what Rannvijay is and how he is dealing with this character. It is high time we watch a film for entertainment and don’t take much to heart.”