Is There Going to Be Animal 2?

The post-credit scenes of Animal (2023) are dangling before audiences the possibility of a sequel to director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s twisted ode to father-son love. Without giving away any details of what happens in the film, let’s just say that the story doesn’t end with the last shot of the film, which shows Vijay (Ranbir Kapoor) hugging his cherubic son. Coming up are major spoilers so if you haven’t watched the film, please consider reading this ode to Ranbir Kapoor’s softboi charms or watching this interview of director Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Or maybe you want to check out the other Hindi film release of this week, Sam Bahadur (2023). 

If you read any further than this, you’ve been warned. Here, there be spoilers. 

If you’re still reading, it’s all on you. We did our best to preserve your innocence. 

There are two post-credit scenes in Animal, which ends with Vijay having discovered his father Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor) had been targeted by the sons of an estranged branch of the Singh family. Abrar Haque (Bobby Deol) had ordered a hit on Balbir Singh because Balbir had rejected Abrar’s father’s claim that he deserved a share of the family business. (Abrar’s grandfather and Vijay’s grandfather were brothers.) 

Although Vijay is able to defeat Abrar at the end of a fight that gives the audience an eyeful of Kapoor and Deol’s muscled chests, the alert viewer will remember that Abrar’s mole Zoya (Tripti Dimri)  had told Vijay that Abrar has an elaborate plan in place to attack the Singh family. A key element of that plan is a Haque brother who is based in Istanbul and has been getting plastic surgery to look like Vijay. 

The first post-credit scene takes us to an apartment where Abrar’s third wife is seen sitting on a bed, cradling an infant. Also in the room are Abrar’s brother Abid (now sporting a beard, presumably to show the passage of time) and Zoya. Now we see a man from behind. He’s holding two large cleavers in his hands. He walks through the apartment to go to the bathroom, where we see two men from Vijay’s gang gagged and tied up.

The man puts the knives on the bathroom counter and in the mirror, we see a Vijay lookalike, except he has close-cropped hair. Vijay’s men are horrified. The lookalike turns to Zoya and points at his eyes, silently asking if they’re looking as they should. Zoya nods. He points to his lips and puckers them. Zoya nods again, to confirm he looks like Vijay. When he smiles, the eagle-eyed viewer will note the teeth are different. Then, the lookalike — his name is Aziz — takes his knives and starts hacking at one of Vijay’s men. Blood spatters everywhere. Zoya rushes to another bathroom and throws up. 

After he’s killed the other man, Aziz goes to Zoya and asks why she’s feeling sick. He rejects her explanation that the sight of blood made her stomach turn. That’s the other kind of vomit, says Aziz, who is evidently not just a butcher but also a connoisseur of puke. Having concluded Zoya is pregnant, he tells her that they’ll know if the child is his or Vijay’s once it’s born. If the child doesn’t look like Aziz, then it’s his. 

Side note: All the Singh family men in Animal are highly fecund. Balbir Singh has three children. Vijay has two (at least, since the jury’s out on the paternity of Zoya’s unborn child). These otherwise respectable numbers pale to insignificance next to Abrar, who belongs to the same clan and is one of four brothers. Abrar had eight kids before he got married to his third wife, who gave birth to identical twins. That’s 10 to his name.

Then Aziz returns to the surviving member of Vijay’s gang. “You’re the one who was singing when he killed my brother, aren’t you?” Aziz asks the gagged man before hacking him to death. Once again, blood spatters everywhere. Aziz emerges, his once-white tee drenched in red blood, knives in his hands. The text “Animal Park” comes on screen — possibly as a salute to Korean director Park Chan-wook? There are odes to Oldboy (2003) in Animal — with an invitation to the audience to “visit soon”. 

The final scene of the film harks back to its opening, which was shot in black and white, and showed an aged Vijay (Kapoor with some serious prosthetics. Curiously, this look is more natural on Kapoor than the scenes in which he has been de-aged to be a schoolboy) talking to his buddies in the year 2056, at the centenary celebrations of the family business. The balding and bespectacled Vijay beckons the camera closer and then points to his crotch. We’ll leave you to figure out exactly what he’s inviting the audience to do. 

While there hasn’t been any confirmation from Reddy Vanga or anyone else from the Animal team, it seems Vijay and Aziz are going to return and face-off against one another in Animal 2. According to Box Office India, Animal recorded the fourth highest advance of all time with almost Rs. 40 crore in collections for three days before the first show. It is likely to be the biggest opening for a Ranbir Kapoor film so far.