This development paves way for a direct clash between Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2 and Sunny Deol’s Radar 2
About two years ago, the makers of Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal had announced that the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial venture would arrive in cinemas on August 11, 2023. Earlier this year, Sunny Deol’s Radar 2: The Katha Continues, and Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2 (Oh My God 2) also made a beeline for the pre-Independence Day weekend. Now, Ranbir’s gangster drama has been deferred to December 1.
Speculation had been rife about the Bhushan Kumar production being rescheduled for a while. Recently, veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh broke the news saying, “Exclusive: Animal is not arriving on Independence Day weekend. Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor and directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, won’t release on 11 August, 2023. Yes, the film has been postponed. A new release date will be announced in the coming days.”
Insiders attribute it to the time taken by extensive VFX in the narrative. A source pointed out that Animal is one of the most ambitious projects to come out of T-Series banner, and considering the fate of their last magnum opus, Adipurush, they can’t afford to compromise on quality of content. The informer explained, “Sandeep is known to strive for perfection, so he is sparing no effort in releasing an uncompromised product, be it storytelling, cast, crew, treatment or VFX. The teams have working round the clock to meet the release date. However, the action scenes are so grand that it is not possible to have their best version ready for August 11. Considering Sandeep’s vision for the movie and what they teams could have been ready with by early August, the producers, along with Ranbir, collectively decided to release Animal on December 1.”
Interestingly, that also seemed to be an apt window available for the film that also stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Dell and Rashmika Mandanna. As an industry source shares, “Animal comes three weeks after Salman Khan’s Tiger 3 with YRF, and three weeks before Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki with director Rajkumar Hirani. The teaser of Ranbir’s axing scene in Animal has not only generated abundant buzz, but also piqued audience’s curiosity around the film.”
With this development, August 11 will see a direct two-way clash between Gadar 2 and OMG 2. The first instalments of both Sunny’s and Akshay’s starters respectively have been big hits. While the Anil Sharma-directed period action drama comes over 22 years since Gadar: Ek Poem Katha, director Amit Rai’s sequel comes about 11 years since Umesh Shukla’s OMG: Oh My God! (2012). While Akshay played Lord Krishna in the first outing, this time around, he plays Lord Shiva in the slice-of-life-drama.
