The film's soundtrack album was composed by Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson and Harshavardhan Rameshwar.

After meeting his father, Vijay reconciles and takes charge of his family and openly threatens to slit the throats of the people involved in the assassination attempt on live television.

He rounds up his cousins from the village for backup security and recruits a body double for his father, who is eventually killed by a gangster named Asrar Haque.

Vijay discovers Varun's role in the assassination attempt and kills him publicly at a conference with his cousins, where Asrar is also present.

Vijay and his cousins fly to Scotland and manage to stop Abrar and Abid from fleeing the country in a private jet.

[26] In 2025, during the pre-release event of Thandel, Vanga revealed that it was the film's lead actor Naga Chaitanya whose style of long hair and beard as well as real-life outfits inspired the protagonist's looks.

The songs featured in the film are composed by AR Rahman, Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Ashim Kemson, Harshvardhan Rameshwar, Bhupinder Babbal.

[34] Lyrics were written by Manoj Muntashir, Raj Shekhar, Siddharth-Garima, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Ashim Kemson and Bhupinder Babbal.

The album features eight tracks with four singles—"Hua Main",[35] "Satranga",[36] "Papa Meri Jaan"[37] and "Arjan Vailly"[38]—were released before the audio launch.

The soundtrack to Animal was released at a music launch and fan experience event held on 24 November 2023 at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai.

[41] Arijit Singh held a concert in Chandigarh where Ranbir Kapoor joined him to promote film with the song Satranga on 4 November 2023.

[42][43] During the semi-final of 2023 Cricket World Cup, Ranbir Kapoor attended the stadium to watch the match and for promotional activities of the film on 15 November 2023.

[60][61][62] Animal was initially set for an 11 August 2023 release, but was postponed due to post-production and dubbing work, as well as to avoid clashing with Jailer, Gadar 2 and Oh My God 2.

[63] It was theatrically released on 1 December 2023 in standard and IMAX formats in Hindi with dubbed versions in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages.

[83][84] Eventually it became the highest non-holiday opening of all time for a Hindi film breaking the previous record held by Ranbir Kapoor's Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva.

"[101] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 33 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[102] Awarding the film 4.5/5 stars, Bollywood Hungama praised "Ranbir Kapoor’s outstanding performance, clap-worthy massy scenes, and interval block.

"[103] Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Animal is relentless as a euphoric medley of feral rage and dance of the dysfunctional.

"[104] Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Animal is an adrenaline experience which will have polarising views but you can't deny its entertaining quotient, breathtaking performances and storytelling.

"[105] Puja Awasthi of The Week gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Animal for all its blood and gore, is the story of a son’s aching desire for his father’s approval.

[107] Titas Chowdhury of News18 gave 3.5/5 stars, labelled it "dark, loud and garish but also unapologetic", and thought that Ranbir Kapoor "breathes life into this undesirable character with a lot of charisma and swag".

[108] Abhimanyu Mathur of DNA India rated the film 3.5/5 and opined, "Animal takes everything that was problematic and increases it several notches.

[109] Conversely, Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India gave 2.5/5 stars and termed the film "all swag and no substance derailed family drama"; she was critical of "Vanga's take on women or violence" but praised Ranbir's "raw sex appeal and unmatched intensity".

[110] India Today's Anvita Singh gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Ranbir Kapoor is stellar in problematic, paper-thin film.

Reptile-eyed even at his smoldering best, Kapoor's career-best performance makes Animal tough to stomach, but equally difficult to ignore".

[113] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "The sickeningly violent father-son action drama rarely pauses for breath.

"[115] Phuong Le of The Guardian gave 1/5 stars and wrote "Animal sinks even further into regressive depths, resulting in one of the vilest protagonists to have graced the big screen.

"[116][117] Pranati A S of Deccan Herald gave 1/5 stars and wrote "If you thought Arjun Reddy was toxic, then Animal will rattle your cage.

"[118] Amid the controversial reception about alleged glorification of violence and misogyny, the film was defended by some filmmakers such as Ram Gopal Varma,[119] Anurag Kashyap,[120][121][122][123] Vikram Bhatt,[124] and Sanjay Gupta[125] as well as actresses Rashmika Mandanna,[126] Sargun Mehta,[127] Indira Krishnan,[128] and Bhumi Pednekar.

[130][131] Also, the daily newspaper Times of India has called it one of the best violent action films in Bollywood despite its controversial subject matter.