'Animal': Anil Kapoor Says He Always Had Faith In Ranbir Kapoor’s Talent, Calls Him ‘Tall Raj Kapoor’

Anil Kapoor is all set to feature next in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’, co-starring Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, Triptii Dimri, Shakti Kapoor, Prem Chopra, and Suresh Oberoi, among others. In the film, Anil plays the role of Ranbir Kapoor’s father, and talking about the actor, Anil said that he always knew that Ranbir is going to be a star.

Describing him as the “tall Raj Kapoor”, Anil, while speaking to Connect FM Canada, said that he always had faith in Ranbir’s talent. He said, “I started my career as a casting director. I have a certain instinct for faces and actors. I’m very proud of that. I watched Saawariya and I just said ‘In the Kapoor family, there is a tall Raj Kapoor.’ I said it almost 16 years ago.”

For those caught unaware, Ranbir made his Bollywood debut with Anil’s daughter Sonam Kapoor in the 2007 film ‘Saawariya’, which was helmed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Not just Ranbir, Anil also praised Hrithik Roshan and recalled how he saw the potential of Hrithik when he watched him in ‘Fiza’, which was his second release after his debut film ‘Kaho Naa Pyar Hai’. “When I saw Hrithik’s Fiza, I told him the same thing. I said ‘Hrithik, you are a star for the next 25 years’,” Anil recalled.

Coming to ‘Animal’, the film features Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor playing father and son, and the father-son story was recently described as the ‘A rated’ Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham by Ranbir Kapoor. 

At a press meet in Hyderabad, Anil mentioned how casting such a film was quite crucial in the film and mentioned how it helped that Ranbir and Anil’s families have been friends for sixty years. “I knew Ranbir’s dad very closely and we have been very close family friends for more than 60 years now. He is a part of the family,” Anil said. He also called casting Bobby Deol in Animal a “masterstroke” on Sandeep’s part.

Written-directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, ‘Animal’ has both elements of typical South Indian and Bollywood films, and Ranbir’s character has a relationship with his father which is carved in blood and darkness, which makes him a psychotic bloodthirsty killer.