Vanga Rejects Claims That Animal Inspired Andhra School Attack

A 21-year-old man allegedly attacked two students with a chainsaw at a government school in Raptadu, Andhra Pradesh, on October 31.

One girl was critically injured, and the other was hurt while trying to protect her classmate.

The attack led some social media users to blame violent films, including Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s 2023 film Animal.

Vanga said the tragedy calls for empathy, not blaming cinema for the crime.

He also accused some critics of using the incident to attack other people’s work.

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma rejected the link between films and real-life violence, while the debate has renewed attention on a classroom scene in Animal in which a character enters with a gun.