During the buzz surrounding Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal, featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, and Rashmika Mandanna, rumors swirled that Shahid Kapoor’s Kabir Singh might make an appearance in the film. As it turns out, there’s truth to these rumors, with new details emerging about the shelved crossover scene that was planned to thrill fans on the big screen.
According to a report in Pinkvilla, Sandeep Reddy Vanga had devised a scene, slated post-interval in Animal, where Shahid Kapoor’s intoxicated surgeon Kabir Singh would operate on Ranbir Kapoor’s character, Ranvijay Singh Balbir, in what would have been an iconic moment.
### The Planned Scene: “After Ranvijay Singh is admitted to the hospital, the doctor assigned to operate on him is Kabir Singh. Vanga envisioned a massy sequence featuring the two characters, where a drunk Kabir successfully performs surgery on an injured Ranvijay.”
The scene would then see the two characters engaging in conversation, with Ranvijay expressing gratitude by asking Kabir for his name. Kabir, in his signature style, responds, “The whole country knows my name, Kabir… Kabir Singh. And you?” Ranvijay, rattled but grateful, replies, “After today, the whole country will know my name too. Ranvijay. Ranvijay Singh.”
### Unforeseen Hurdles: Despite readiness to shoot the scene, Shahid Kapoor’s unavailability due to scheduling conflicts caused the plan to fall through. Released in 2019, Kabir Singh, a remake of Vanga’s debut Telugu film Arjun Reddy, became a blockbuster, shattering records in Indian cinema. However, in 2023, Animal surpassed Kabir Singh’s records, emerging as the biggest A-rated blockbuster in Indian cinema history, solidifying Vanga’s directorial prowess.
This unrealized crossover serves as a tantalizing glimpse into what could have been a thrilling cinematic moment uniting two iconic characters from contemporary Indian cinema.
