Not Oscar Shortlist, Kiran Rao Calls Laapataa Ladies Surpassing Ranbir Kapoor's Animal In OTT Viewership 'The Real High'

Kiran Rao and Sandeep Reddy Vanga engaged in a public spat and war of words following the release of their respective films Laapataa Ladies and Animal. Despite the lack of commercial success, Laapataa Ladies was one of the highest-viewed films on OTT, surpassing even the Ranbir Kapoor starrer. Director Kiran Rao has now expressed her happiness about the movie's performance on streaming platforms.

Kiran Rao compares Laapataa Ladies OTT viewership with Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal 

Producer and director Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies was one of those low-budget Indian films that created wonders upon OTT release despite underwhelming performance at the box office. Despite the lack of renowned Bollywood stars in the movie, Kiran said that she felt incredible after her film surpassed Ranbir Kapoor's Animal viewership numbers on the streaming giant Netflix. Kiran, known for producing critically acclaimed movies like Peepli Live, Talaash, and Secret Superstar, directed Laapataa Ladies. It was released last year and starred debutants Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Sinha and actor Sparsh Shrivastava in the lead roles.

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After a successful run in the theatres, Kiran's Laapataa Ladies gave a tough fight to Ranbir Kapoor's Animal on Netflix and broke several records on the OTT platform. While speaking with ANI, Kiran expressed her happiness about crossing the viewership numbers of the multi-starrer film Animal- one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films in 2023- on the OTT giant Netflix after their debut in 2024. "We beat their numbers. That was a real high because, honestly, it was such a big film (Ranbir starrer Animal). It had done such huge business. Our film broke a lot of that kind of records on OTT, which we could not do in the theatres," said Kiran Rao.

Kiran Rao and Sandeep Reddy Vanga war of words

Recently, in an interview with a media portal, Kiran Rao, without naming any film, mentioned that recent Hindi movies have blurred the lines between ‘stalking and wooing’. She also questioned the depiction of female characters in the movies. Responding to the same, the Animal director told a media portal, “Today morning, my AD showed me an article. It is of the second ex-wife of a superstar. She is saying that films like Bahubaali 2 and Kabir Singh promote misogyny and stalking. I think she does not know the difference between stalking and approaching. When people read these things out of context, they tend to agree. This is entirely wrong.” He also urged Kiran Rao, without naming her, to revisit old films of her ex-husband Aamir Khan like Dil in which his character does much worse than stalking women.

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Sandeep Reddy Vanga in a interview with Dainik Bhaskar in February, called out Kiran Rao for certain statements she had made about his 2019 film Kabir Singh. Without referring to Rao directly, Vanga has in turn cited examples from the Aamir Khan starrer Dil (1991) and a certain song, both of which are also morally questionable in the same light. He said, "The second ex-wife of a superstar is saying that Baahubali 2 and Kabir Singh promote misogyny and endorse stalking...I want to tell that woman, go and ask Aamir Khan about the song 'Khambe jaisi khadi hai', what was that? Then come back to me. If you remember Dil, he almost attempts rape, and makes her feel like she has done the wrong thing. And then they fall in love. What was all that?" Both the statements went viral online.