Javed Akhtar fans roast Sandeep Reddy Vanga over 'your art form is false' jibe, flood Twitter with lyricist's best work

Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Animal's team come under fire for recent statement against Javed Akhtar, after he called their film's success 'dangerous'.

Days after Javed Akhtar criticised Animal, on Sunday, the team of the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer had taken a jibe at the veteran lyricist-writer. Fans of Javed, who was part of the legendary writing duo Salim-Javed and had written films such as Zanjeer and Sholay with Salim Khan, are now defending him and calling out Animal filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga for ‘messing’ with him.

Javed_Akhtar has spoken about Animal; Sandeep Reddy Vanga with Ranbir Kapoor and Anil Kapoor at the film's star-studded success bash in Mumbai over the weekend.

Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), Javed Akhtar fans are sharing clips of his old work in response to team Animal's statement on the film's X account.

While he didn't mention Animal, the screenwriter had cited the example of the film's controversial bootlicking scene featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Triptii Dimri, as he spoke about how the commercial success of films with problematic scenes is a 'dangerous' trend.

Twitter reacts to Animal team's snide remarks

Roasting Sandeep Reddy Vanga, a fan shared a clip of Shah Rukh Khan's song Dastaan - E - Om Shanti Om from Om Shanti Om (2007), and wrote, "Any song written by Javed Akhtar >>> Vanga's complete filmography, this one is just an example..." Sharing another clip of Shah Rukh Khan with Gayatri Joshi in the Swades song Pal Pal Hai Bhaari, an X user wrote, “'Javed Akhtar's all art form is big FALSE'. Meanwhile his art form..."

Sharing a clip of Amitabh Bachchan from his 1975 film Deewaar, a fan wrote, "Vanga just called Javed Akhtar 'big false'. Years before Vanga’s birth Salim-Javed were defining 'alpha', 'mass' for the social media age." A Twitter user also said along with a still of Amitabh and Parveen Babi from the film, “Thinking more of this dumbshit mess with the incel king and Javed Akhtar, Deewaar was about a hyper-masculine antihero, who loved women and treated them respectfully, including a woman considered tainted by society. He didn't need to ask her to lick his shoe to prop up his masculinity.”

What team Animal had said

Earlier on Sunday, the Animal team on X tagged Javed Akhtar and wrote, "Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya and Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE and if a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said 'lick my shoe' then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it feminism. Let love be free from the politics of gender. Let's just call them lovers. LOVER cheated and lied. LOVER said lick my shoe. Period."

Directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal has received criticism for its portrayal of toxic relationships, misogyny and violence, despite being one of the top Indian Hindi films of 2023, grossing over ₹900 crore at the worldwide box office. Recently, Javed, at the Ajanta Ellora International Film Festival in Aurangabad, had expressed his concern over such films' success. Animal also features Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol.

What Javed Akhtar had said

He had said without talking any names, "If there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe, if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman…and the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous,” he said, referring to the scene between Ranbir and Triptii Dimrii’s characters that generated controversy. The slapping could be a reference to Sandeep’s previous film Kabir Singh, starring Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani, and its Telugu original Arjun Reddy.

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