“Golden Rule Is To Never…”: Triptii Dimri Opens Up About ‘Lick My Shoe’ Scene With Ranbir Kapoor In ‘Animal’
Triptii Dimri recently spoke about her new Hindi movie ‘Animal’, co-starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna and Bobby Deol.
Filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga, known for the hit Telugu film ‘Arjun Reddy’ and its blockbuster Hindi remake ‘Kabir Singh’, recently came out with his third directorial venture ‘Animal’. The new Hindi movie, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna and Triptii Dimri, is proving to be a box office winner. ‘Animal’ is also continuing to receive flak on social media due to the themes explored in the movie and the message it has sent out to the society.
Despite all the negative chatter, ‘Animal’ has managed to make over Rs 300 crore in India in just six days of its release. While Ranbir Kapoor and Bobby Deol have received the most amount of praise for their acting skills in the movie, Triptii Dimri has also come into the limelight for her brief yet impactful role.
In one of the most talked about sequences from the new Hindi movie, Ranbir Kapoor’s character asks Triptii Dimri’s Zoya to lick his shoes to prove that she truly loves him, after she is revealed as a mole.
Triptii Dimri is aware of the conversation the film has generated and says that scene was done after a lot of discussion with Ranbir Kapoor and Sandeep Reddy Vanga and hence there was no “apprehension”.
Speaking about the scene, Triptii Dimri told The Indian Express, “It reminded me of what my acting coach had told me, the golden rule: Never judge your character. The characters you are playing, the character your co-actor is playing, all are human and humans have good and bad side.”
She further said, “An actor must be prepared to play characters across the spectrum of good, bad and ugly, but if you judge a character’s motivations, thoughts, you won’t be able to play it with honesty. So that’s what I kept in mind.”
While the scene is obviously pushing her character to the edge, Triptii Dimri said that she tried to flip the situation and put herself in the place of Ranbir Kapoor’s character in that scene.
She said, “I also thought that here was a woman who talks about killing his wife, father, kids, the entire family…. If someone tells me that, I will perhaps beat that person! Here, he does ask her to do that (lick his shoe) but also walks away later. He clearly is going through a lot of these (intense thoughts). Later when his cousins asks her what they should do with me, he says ‘Let her go wherever she wants to.’”
In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, actor Siddhant Karnick, who plays Ranbir Kapoor’s character’s brother-in-law in the film, also spoke about the same scene.
He said, “It was unsettling, but I also felt, ‘Wow what a choice for a character and a very courageous choice to make for the director.’ At the end of the day, Sandeep sir is getting the flak. That’s when he turned an anti-hero to me from a hero.”
“That’s what portrayed the man’s psycho-ness. That he is good but he also has these deep dark traits. That was a very fine line for Vijay to turn villain, it is not easy to tread on. I felt damn unsettled with that scene. But now when I think about, it was also so good, it makes you react,” he added.
The Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial is Triptii Dimri’s first theatrical release since her 2018 much-loved movie ‘Laila Majnu’. Triptii Dimri’s next two Netflix outings, ‘Bulbbul’ and ‘Qala’, established her as a solid performer. And ‘Animal’ gave her the widest platform of her career.
She said, “This was my theatrical film after so long. I had forgotten how it feels to look at yourself on the big screen. Animal reminded me of that. Of course, a big theatrical film comes with its own impact, it reaches a different, perhaps wider audience. So many people who discovered me in Animal have now gone back and watched Bulbbull and Qala.
Triptii Dimri added, “That’s precisely the dream of an actor, that their work should be discovered by newer audiences.”
