Filmdom's new pet obsession | Animals in films

With plotlines twirling around our four-legged friends, 2026 is the Year of the Pet in Indian cinema, especially their capacity to love and heal, and the need for us to reciprocate with empathy

ISSUE DATE: Nov 2, 2026

In 2022, during the downward arc of the COVID-19 pandemic, filmmaker Amit Rai saw a dog adoption post on Facebook. He didn’t care that it wasn’t a pedigreed breed or that it had a slight limp in a hind leg. “I felt proud of myself, thinking I will look after him,” he says. But the pride soon evaporated as Rai realised “woh mujhko paal raha hai (he’s taking care of me)!” Rai describes the arrival of Oscar as a life-changing experience, one that would inspire him to write a script summing up the emotions he felt for his pet. The result was Ohh My Dog (OMD), in which Oscar plays Momo, a lost pet whose search brings a tech-savvy kid up against corrupt police officers and illegal dog-meat mafia. The scene-stealer, though, was Bruno, a trained indie dog who runs, sniffs, barks and howls to find a child kidnapped by an organ trafficking ring.

OMD has its flaws, from plot deviations to a protracted run time, but its four-legged heroes have the audiences go ‘Aww...’ every now and then. And it’s not the only Indian film in 2026 on human-animal bonds. Before OMD, there was Max, Min and Meowzaki in late July, which featured a cat who shakes things up in the life of its heartbroken hero before healing him. In September, Gujarati film Asambhauuu focused on the brotherly bond between a man and his dog. Its director, Parth Trivedi, mostly worked with breed dogs—barring one indie stray—which does a noble act in the climax. On October 23, Sachin Pilgaonkar joined the doggo film universe with Kaapuskonda, a Marathi film that shows him as a man who transforms from a dog-hater to a dog-lover. Besides the surge of narratives set around pet dogs, the canines have a lesser but eyecatching presence in new films like Nayyi Naveli (2026), where a fluffy white dog is a loved family member.

PAW-SITIVE VIBE

For Trivedi, Asambhhauu emerged from the need to document a social fact: people treating pets as family members. “It is no longer limited to metros or a certain socio-economic strata,” he says. “With increasingly stressful lifestyle, there’s an urge to find a selfless, loving companion, so the adoption of cats and dogs has grown.” Trivedi’s film contemporises the famous Mahabharata episode in which Yudhishthira refuses to heed lord Indra’s diktat to abandon a stray dog, his loyal companion on an arduous journey, outside the gates of heaven. “My film looks at how far a dog would go for his loyalty and love for a human, and how far a human too would go for the dog,” he adds.

And while cats aren’t known to be as affectionate as dogs, it didn’t dull filmmaker Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s love for his late pet. In his film Max, Min and Meowzaki, he named the pet cat ‘Meowzaki’ after the famous Japanese animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki, whose films feature prominent feline characters. Much like the male protagonist Max, Padmakumar was allergic to cats until one afternoon his partner’s cat inveigled itself into his affection by putting its head on his lap. He is now familiar about their clever ways. “A cat can teach you a hell lot about relationships...how to give and claim space, and show affection without smothering someone,” he says. “Cats are dignified, know how to ignore you and know their place in your life.” In Max, Min and Meowzaki, the cat—played by desi billi Radha—is artfully used to show Max’s evolving maturity.

WE ARE FAMILY

Dogs have been woofing about in Hindi cinema for some time. Tuffy ensured Prem and Nisha were matched in Hum Aapke Hain Koun! (1994), and in Santosh Sivan’s Halo (1996), a seven-year-old girl embarks on an adventure to find her missing pet. But the film that highlighted the cause of street dogs was Chillar Party (2011), in which colony kids unite to save their community indie from a corrupt politician who wants to have it killed. Soon, Aamir Khan would lend his voice to Pluto Mehra, the Bullmastiff pet the Mehras travel with in Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and Akshay Kumar would have a dog as his co-star in It’s Entertainment (2014).

Southern cinema has had its share of canine cast too. Kannada film 777 Charlie (2022) would show the plight of dogs in breeding units; in Malayalam film Eko (2025), an ageing woman uses her rare breed dogs to both protect herself as well as exact revenge, while in Tamil drama Pariyerum Perimal (2018), a slender black dog becomes a target of caste-based violence.

For Abodh Aras, CEO of Mumbai-based Welfare of Stray Dogs, what’s heartening is how dogs, particularly indie strays, are making their way into cinema. He cites the example of acclaimed Marathi drama Tighee (2026), in which a fractured relationship between an ailing mother and her two daughters gets some temporary reprieve after a puppy is rescued and brought home. “It shows the joy of how having a companion like a dog can make you forget hardships,” says Aras. “It makes a difference to people’s perception of having indies as pets.” Aras, though, also emphasises the need for filmmakers to adhere to the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) guidelines while filming.

That’s what Anjali Gopalan, member, AWBI, does most Thursdays—deliberating with her colleagues as to which film gets a NOC (no objection certification) with the disclaimer ‘No animals were harmed during the making of this film’. For AWBI, pre-shoot permission, which details the storyline and use of animals, is a prerequisite. “We tell them what is acceptable and ask for cuts for scenes depicting animal cruelty, even if it is done using CGI or AI,” she says. For OMD, Rai followed AWBI guidelines, ensuring that the dogs had anti-rabies shots, a dog trainer was present on set and proper transportation was arranged to take them from Mumbai to Bihar and Assam.

COMPASSION OVER CRUELTY

While Hollywood continues a rich tradition of dogs and cats being integral part of storylines, India is slowly catching up. “In India, we don’t have that level of empathy yet,” says Padmakumar. But he believes that the ‘crystal generation’ (those born after 2000) is particularly compassionate towards animals.

It’s why Rai feels making OMD was necessary, especially when attitudes towards indie strays are exceedingly negative after the Supreme Court’s recent judgment ordering the removal of strays from institutional spaces like hospitals and railway stations. “We all are woven in a single thread. It is us humans who started thinking we own this world and created boundaries,” he says. “Animals are here to show loyalty and kindness and teach empathy.”

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