Ever since the release of Animal on December 1, many have been debating the film’s ‘misogynistic’ approach and its lead character, Rannvijay Singh aka Vijay’s (Ranbir Kapoor) ‘toxic’ behaviour. Amid the backlash over Animal’s toxic masculinity, an old clip of actor Shah Rukh Khan from a 1994 episode of Aap Ki Adalat has surfaced. In it, the actor was seen responding after he was accused of playing ‘negative roles’ in films, which were a ‘bad influence’ on people. 

Shah Rukh Khan said, “Ek beech ke roles hote hain. Main junko human characters kehta hoon. Main unko negative character nahi kehta. Nahi main unko positive character kehta hoon. Yeh black and white nahi hai… Maine jo filmoh mein kiya usme maine basically love angle use kiya – ki main is se pyar karta hoon, iss inteha tak pyar karta hoon ki main pyar mein jaan le loon… Aur har film ke akhir mein humne kahin par bhi aisa nahi dikhaya ki kuch sympathy uske sath jati hai (These characters are humans, they are not negative or positive. It is not as simple as black and white. I have played characters that can even kill for love, but they have never been rewarded or gotten a sympathy for doing bad things).”

Shah Rukh was told that a magazine had done a nationwide survey about his negative characters in films, and most respondents had said negative roles should be played by villains and actors such as Shah Rukh playing them has a ‘negative impact’.