‘Animal’ director Sandeep Reddy Vanga was not surprised when filmmaker Karan Johar confessed to liking both of Vanga’s films, ‘Kabir Singh’ and ‘Animal’. The controversial filmmaker admitted that he was expecting Johar to love his ‘Animal’, starring Ranbir Kapoor, since he had also liked his Hindi debut, ‘Kabir Singh’. However, when speaking about ‘Kabir Singh’, he did mention how the film’s lead star Shahid Kapoor perhaps hasn’t watched ‘Animal’ yet, because he hasn’t received a message from him.

It was at a roundtable event that Karan Johar had showered praise on ‘Animal’, hailing it as the “best” film of 2023. KJo said he loved the film for its “front-footed, absolutely conviction-based narrative, breaking grammar, breaking myths and breaking everything that you conform to in mainstream cinema.”

Now during an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Vanga was questioned about Johar’s comments and if he was surprised to hear it. To which, the filmmaker said, “He messaged me during Kabir Singh also and had put a long message on Instagram for Kabir Singh that he loved the film. He genuinely liked it, even though I didn't expect that he would like Kabir, but when he did, I was expecting that he would love Animal as well, which he did.”

Apart from Johar, the other person–among several–who congratulated him for ‘Animal’ was ‘Arjun Reddy’ star Vijay Devarakonda. He said, “We always have this thing that we have to work on again, but it’s not like he will immediately call me because my film is a hit. Vijay and I are regularly in touch, we talk on phone.” When asked if his ‘Kabir Singh’ star Shahid Kapoor reached out to him, Vanga said, “Maybe he still hasn’t seen the film.”

Meanwhile, post the success of ‘Animal’, he is now looking forward to his next directorial, ‘Spirit’, with Prabhas. He would then kick off working on ‘Animal Park’ with Ranbir Kapoor. Shahid, meanwhile, is awaiting the release of ‘Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya’. The film, which also stars Kriti Sanon, will hit the screens this Friday.