Animal is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action drama film co-written, directed and edited by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, dipanshu, kunal and jointly produced by T-Series Films, Bhadrakali Pictures and Cine1 Studios. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna and Triptii Dimri. The film follows Ranvijay Singh and his troubled relationship with his industrialist father, Balbir Singh. After spending years abroad, Ranvijay learns about an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Balbir and returns home, embarking on a ruthless quest for vengeance.

The film was officially announced in January 2021. Principal photography began in April 2022 and wrapped by April 2023, with cinematography by Amit Roy. The film's soundtrack album was composed by Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson and Harshavardhan Rameshwar. With a runtime of 203 minutes, Animal is one of the longest Indian films ever made. It was initially set for an August 2023 release but was postponed due to post-production work.

Animal was theatrically released on 1 December 2023, in standard and IMAX formats to mixed reviews, with praise for its cast performances, direction, screenwriting, soundtrack, cinematography, action sequences and technical aspects but faced severe criticism for its themes and graphic violence. However, the film did very well commercially, both domestically and internationally. It grossed worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing Indian film of 2023, the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film, the eleventh highest-grossing Indian film and third highest-grossing A-rated Indian film.

At the 69th Filmfare Awards, the film received 19 nominations, including Best Film, and won a leading six awards, including Best Actor for Ranbir Kapoor. At the 22nd Zee Cine Awards 2024, the film won 4 awards, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for Anil Kapoor, and the Best Actor In a Negative Role award for Bobby Deol. The film also won 3 awards at the 71st National Film Awards: Special Mention, Best Background Music, and Best Sound Design. A sequel titled Animal Park, announced in the post-credits scene, is in early development.

Plot In Delhi, Ranvijay "Vijay" Singh is the son of industrialist Balbir Singh, head of steel conglomerate Swastik Steels. Balbir is a workaholic who maintains a distant relationship with his family. As a teenager, Vijay takes a licensed AK-47 to his sister Reet's college to intimidate her bullies, prompting an outraged Balbir to send Vijay to a boarding school in the United States. Years later, Vijay returns home for Balbir's sixtieth birthday, but an argument with Reet's husband, Varun, leads to Balbir disowning him. Vijay marries his childhood sweetheart, Gitanjali, and relocates to the US.

Eight years later, Vijay returns to India with Gitanjali and their two children after Balbir survives an assassination attempt. Reconciling with his father, Vijay assumes control of Balbir's security detail and recruits his distant cousins from his ancestral village for protection. He hires Kailash Petkar, a body double for Balbir. Kailash is later murdered by Asrar Haque, who is revealed to be linked to the initial attack on Balbir.

Upon learning that Varun conspired with the attackers, Vijay strangles him at a public press conference in full view of Asrar. Vijay and his cousins then meet an arms dealer, Freddy, at a hotel to collect a custom-designed multi-barrel machine gun. Asrar and his assailants ambush the hotel, but Vijay massacres them with the weapon and kills Asrar. Vijay suffers severe injuries in the battle, leading to hearing damage, organ failure, and a heart transplant. Meanwhile, in Scotland, Asrar's mute brother, Abrar Haque, learns of his death during his wedding.

During his recovery, Vijay meets Zoya, who claims to be the fiancee of his heart donor, and begins an extramarital affair with her. After Vijay gifts her a car that explodes, a guilt-ridden Zoya reveals that she was sent by Abrar to spy on the family and that Abrar's brother, Aziz, underwent plastic surgery to impersonate Vijay. Vijay discloses that he anticipated her deceit, orchestrated the explosion, and spares her life. Vijay's grandfather, Rajdhir, reveals the origins of the feud: Rajdhir had exiled his younger brother Shamsher for misconduct, and Shamsher's son, Azim, converted to Islam and sought a share of Swastik Steels, which Balbir denied. Humiliated by the rejection, Shamsher immolated himself in front of his grandson Abrar, leaving Abrar mute from trauma and sparking a generational vendetta.

After Vijay confesses his affair to Gitanjali, she demands a divorce. Vijay and his cousins fly to Scotland to track down Abrar. Intercepting Abrar at an airfield, Vijay engages him a duel on the runway and kills Abrar after he rejects his offer of reconciliation. Returning home, Vijay discovers that Balbir has acute lymphoblastic leukemia and only months to live. When Balbir emphasises that Vijay's violence cannot save him from his illness, Vijay confronts him over his lifelong emotional neglect, prompting an apology from Balbir. Meanwhile, Gitanjali prepares to leave with the children, but their son runs back to embrace Vijay.

In a post-credits scene, Aziz completes his plastic surgery to look identical to Vijay. A pregnant Zoya remains uncertain whether Vijay or Aziz is the father while Aziz brutally slays two of Vijay's cousins and proposes marriage to Abrar's third widow.

Cast

Production Development In September 2019, it was reported that Sandeep Reddy Vanga would turn into a producer for his next directional venture in Bollywood. It was further reported that he would produce the venture along with Murad Khetani, Ashwin Varde, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar under Cine1 Studios and T-Series. On 10 October, the company's and Vanga's new production banner Bhadrakali Pictures announced their collaboration for Vanga's next directional; marking their second collaboration after Kabir Singh (2019). In early December, Vanga was reported to have approached Ranbir Kapoor to play the lead role in the film. ETimes reported that Kapoor was "keen" to work on the film, however, would finalize it only after hearing the final script, which was still progressing writing.

In June 2020 however, it was reported that Vanga met Kapoor in January and narrated another script, which was reportedly titled Devil. In late December, Anil Kapoor was reported to be part of the cast. On 1 January 2021, the company's made an official public announcement of the venture, revealing also the title of the film and the crew. In late April, Bobby Deol and Parineeti Chopra were cast, with the former playing lead antagonist role, while the latter plays lead actress role.

In March 2022, it was reported that Rashmika Mandanna was to dance in an item number for the film. The same month, Mandanna had replaced Chopra, as Vanga was not satisfied with the casting of Chopra during photoshoots. On 2 April, Mandanna's commitments were officially announced. Mandanna called it "a dream come true." Vanga cited Kill Bill as the inspiration for the film's action sequences. Similarly, Kapoor's rockstar look was inspired by Michael Jackson, as reported by hairstylist Aalim Hakim. In 2025, during the pre-release event of Thandel, Vanga revealed that it was the film's lead actor Naga Chaitanya whose style of long hair and beard as well as real-life outfits inspired the protagonist's looks. For the film's interval action sequence, Suresh Selvarajan spent 4 to 5 months designing a working model of a giant machine gun and creating 15,000 to 16,000 dummy bullets with the assistance of nearly 100 people.

In July 2025, Vanga revealed that the first cut of the film was 225 minutes long, while the second and his satisfactory cut was 210 minutes long. A week before the release, he came under pressure to further trim the film by some 7 minutes, something he eventually regretted after repeatedly watching the film during its theatrical run. The casting department for the film included Haseeb Bajwa, Jitendra Bhosale, Khushaal Pawar, and Vicky Kisan Mourya, with Naila Mughal handling the UK and international casting.

Filming Principal photography began in Manali in April 2022. The second schedule took place in Mumbai in May 2022, with filming was held at the Pataudi Palace in July 2022. The next schedules were held in Delhi and Punjab. Filming resumed in England and Scotland in April 2023 with a schedule of 15–20 days. Filming was wrapped by July 2023.

Music

The film score is composed by Harshavardhan Rameshwar, who scored Reddy's previous films Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake Kabir Singh. The songs featured in the film are composed by Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson, Harshvardhan Rameshwar, Bhupinder Babbal. Lyrics were written by Manoj Muntashir, Raj Shekhar, Siddharth-Garima, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Ashim Kemson and Bhupinder Babbal.

The album features eight tracks with four singles—"Hua Main", "Satranga", "Papa Meri Jaan" and "Arjan Vailly"—were released before the audio launch. The soundtrack to Animal was released at a music launch and fan experience event held on 24 November 2023 at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai. A deluxe edition album was released on 15 January 2024, featuring nine additional tracks.

Marketing The teaser was released on 28 September 2023 coinciding with Kapoor's birthday. Arijit Singh held a concert in Chandigarh where Ranbir Kapoor joined him to promote film with the song Satranga on 4 November 2023. During the semi-final of 2023 Cricket World Cup, Ranbir Kapoor attended the stadium to watch the match and for promotional activities of the film on 15 November 2023. The teaser was showcased on Burj Khalifa on 18 November 2023, they also conducted film promotions at Marq Club and Dubai's Global Village on the same day in Dubai. The trailer was released on 23 November 2023. The cast appeared on the Unstoppable, which premiered on Aha on 24 November 2023. They also appeared on Indian Idol. Before the pre-release event they conducted press conference tours in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The film held its pre-release event in Hyderabad on 27 November 2023 with Mahesh Babu and S. S. Rajamouli as the chief guests.

Release Theatrical Animal was initially set to release 5 October 2022 coinciding with Dussehra, then it was shifted to 11 August 2023 coinciding with Independence Day, but was postponed due to post-production and dubbing work, as well as to avoid clashing with Jailer, Gadar 2 and Oh My God 2. It was theatrically released on 1 December 2023 in standard and IMAX formats in Hindi with dubbed versions in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. The film was released across 4000 screens in India, the screen count was impacted due to the clash with Sam Bahadur which was releasing on the same day.

The film had planned to premiere in North America on 30 November 2023, a day before its release. In the United States, it was screened in 888 theaters, marking the highest number for a Hindi film, surpassing the screen count of Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022) and Jawan (2023).

Animal received an A (adults only) certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, a day prior to its trailer release, for strong bloody violence, profanity and some sexuality. It was classified 18 by the British Board of Film Classification for the same reason.

Passed with an R15+ rating, the film was released in Japan on 13 February 2026.

Distribution