Animal released in theatres on December 1 of 2023. The film, despite the many debates and controversies it stoked, ended up becoming one of the highest grossing releases of the year, collecting ₹553.87 crores domestically and ₹915 crores, worldwide, as per a Sacnilk report. The film's dialogue writer Sourabh Gupta, has now come out in support of the film's narrative.

Sourabh Gupta defends Animal

A recent panel discussion hosted by FICCI Frames, saw Animal writer Saurabh Gupta, participate along side a panel of writers including Ghazal Dhaliwal, and Hitesh Kewalya, moderated by Anjum Rajabali. Ghazal's criticism over the film's dialogues and scenes elicited a prompt response from Gupta. 

He said, "I have learnt this courage of believing in our story and making it with full conviction from Sandeep (Reddy Vanga)." He further added to the conversation in Hindi, a rough translation of which reads, 'Just follow the plot and the film's characters...Using cinema to explain to men the importance of sanitary pads, the ills of smoking and drinking has weighed the medium down. Let us have fun, let us have a lot of fun.' He further added,  "I respect the criticism, but I don't think at any point I felt (that this is what the interpretation of our film is going to become)."

Sourabh Gupta compares Animal to Scarface, The Godfather

Gupta further went on to add how while violence induced products from Hollywood are given cult status, a similar project in India finds itself being barraged by criticism and controversy. In this regard, the writer compared the Ranbir Kapoor to the Al Pacino starrer Scarface and the Marlon Brando led The Godfather. He further opined that films must just be taken as films and nothing more.

Originally having spoken in Hindi, a rough translation of Gupta's defense read, "We had a story, we made a film, we wanted to show the protagonist a certain way. Hollywood has had several such films like Scarface, The Godfather, we praise those films. Let us just take films, as films and chill - that is a great word.' Animal is currently streaming on Netflix.