Sandeep Reddy Vanga speaks on not choosing Shahid Kapoor for Animal

In a new interview, the director, who worked with Shahid Kapoor in Kabir Singh, discussed not taking the actor for his film Animal.

Filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga worked with actor Shahid Kapoor in the 2019 hit film Kabir Singh, which was the remake of Vanga’s Arjun Reddy. In a recent interview with Game Changers Podcast, he shared about not taking Shahid Kapoor for his film Animal and casting Ranbir Kapoor. He also spoke about why Shahid Kapoor shouldn’t do remakes.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga praises Shahid Kapoor.

The filmmaker was asked about his experience on working with Shahid Kapoor in Kabir Singh. He said, “Faith was anyways there because Shahid was very interested in doing the remake. Because it’s a remake, you know, there’s less discussion. Once the camera was shifting, I told Shahid that this scene was deleted, and we had one hour of time. The scene is this and this, and there’s nice sunlight; let’s shoot. And he said, ‘Okay’. I said, ‘This is the intention and dialogue. The dialogue wasn’t even on paper. He did it.”

Vanga calls Shahid Kapoor an “original actor.”

The filmmaker added, “We discussed and did it in 90 minutes. It wasn’t in the original script. We weren’t going to shoot it, but the light shifted, and I asked how much time it would take. He said it would take one hour. I said, ‘Shahid, why waste an hour? Let’s shoot it.’ Then I realized that an actor like Shahid shouldn’t do remakes. He’s such an original actor. I also used to tell him so many times.”

Sandeep Reddy Vanga on not taking Shahid for Animal.

When asked why he didn’t cast Shahid Kapoor in Animal, he said he didn’t think like that. He said, “Emotional story, Ranbir Kapoor only striked.” He added that it was “organic” because he felt Ranbir would be right for the role.