Amaal Mallik Defends Violent Films After Andhra Pradesh Chainsaw Attack
- The Scoop: Composer Amaal Mallik has publicly rejected the claim that violent cinema caused the Andhra Pradesh school chainsaw attack, placing responsibility on the individual instead.
- The Argument: Mallik said he enjoyed Animal, Kabir Singh, Dhurandhar and KGF while still objecting to certain scenes, insisting films cannot be the sole trigger for violent conduct.
- Industry Stakes: The statement lands as the industry’s most explicit defense of screen violence in the wake of a crime that has reignited the censorship debate.
Singer-composer Amaal Mallik has pushed back against attempts to pin the Andhra Pradesh school chainsaw attack on violent cinema, arguing that films cannot be held solely responsible for real-world violence.
His intervention reframes a censorship flashpoint as a question of personal accountability, and he did not soften it for the room.
“I would never support anyone going into a school, college or any other place to kill someone with a chainsaw. It is horrifying and completely wrong.”
Separating Screen Violence From Real-World Conduct
Mallik’s position is blunt: he named Animal, Kabir Singh, Dhurandhar and KGF as films he enjoyed, even while objecting to specific scenes within them.
That admission matters. It refuses the binary that has dominated the debate, where enjoying violent fiction is treated as tacit endorsement of violence itself.
He pointed instead to upbringing, family values, political climate, personal experience and trauma as the forces that shape violent behavior.
“If you are getting so influenced by a film you’re the fool.”
The line will not satisfy every censor board voice, but it lands with the certainty of someone who has watched the argument cycle before.
Why the Four Titles Carry the Weight of the Argument
The films he cited are not incidental. Each sits at the center of the industry’s most contested strain of on-screen brutality, and each has been dragged into moral-panic debates before.
Dhurandhar, Aditya Dhar’s spy-action ensemble led by Ranveer Singh with Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal and R. Madhavan, arrives with the kind of muscular staging that invites exactly this scrutiny.
Pairing it with Animal and KGF is a deliberate move, grouping the most polarizing titles of the cycle into a single defense of audience agency.
The broader action landscape, including releases tracked across our recent genre experiments, keeps testing how far theatrical violence can push before the backlash arrives.
The Censorship Fight the Industry Keeps Losing by Default
Every time a real crime is linked to a film, the industry’s instinct is silence, and silence has cost it ground in the regulatory argument.
Mallik’s refusal to retreat gives producers and directors a public counter-argument to cite when certification boards and political pressure campaigns come calling.
The commercial stakes are real. A censorship climate that forces cuts or delayed certification directly compresses the theatrical window and the revenue it generates.
Studios weighing how much brutality to leave in the final cut now have a prominent voice arguing that the audience, not the filmmaker, carries the blame.
The debate will continue, monitored across our trade entertainment desk, but the terms have shifted. The industry’s loudest defense of screen violence is now on record.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
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