Amid a barrage of negative responses to the recently released film Adipurush, Manoj Muntashir Shukla, who co-wrote the film with director Om Raut, has denied that the film is an adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, instead claiming that it was only “heavily inspired” by it. “We knew from the beginning that we were heavily inspired by Ramayana, but we weren’t making Ramayana,” Manoj said in an interview with Aaj Tak. However, viewers were quick to point out that before the film’s release, the same writer had said that Adipurush was a faithful adaptation of the exact same epic that many people in India are familiar with and that there was no attempt to deviate from it at all.
In an interview with ABP News in October 2022, the anchor asked Om and Manoj about the many adaptations of Ramayana and if the makers of Adipurush had tried to explore new possibilities. In the discussion that followed, Manoj had said, “Have we deviated from the original Ramayana, have we tried to modernise it or taken a different take? Not at all. The Ramayana that people have heard, read, and seen, [Adipurush] is the exact same Ramayana, there’s nothing different [in it].”
However, in a recent interview with Aaj Tak journalist Sweta Singh following the film’s release on June 16, Manoj contradicted his previous statement and said, “The film is called Adipurush. Let me make a couple of things clear, I’ve said this before as well. We didn’t make Ramayana, we were inspired by Ramayana. Even our disclaimers have been saying this. It would’ve been easy for us as a marketing strategy to name the film Ramayana, but we knew from the beginning that we were heavily inspired by Ramayana, but we weren’t making Ramayana. Neither were we making Sampoorna Ramayana (the complete Ramayana). We took a small part of the Yuddha Kaanda (the war chapter) of Ramayana which we have shown in the film.”
Meanwhile, following a row over certain ‘crude’ lines delivered by Hanuman’s character in one scene, where he says “jalegi bhi tere baap ki” to Meghnad, the makers have issued a statement saying that they would revisit and make alterations to some of the film’s dialogues based on input from the public. The controversy arose over the Lanka Dahan (burning of Lanka) scene, when Ravana’s son Meghnad lights up Hanuman’s tail and says: “Jali na… Abhi to aur jalegi. Jiski jalti hai wahi janta hai.” (“Does it burn? It’s going to burn even more…) To this, the character of Hanuman replies: “Kapda tere baap ka. Tel tere baap ka. Aag bhi tere baap ki. Toh jalegi bhi tere baap ki.” (“The cloth, oil and fire are your father’s. So it’s your fathers that will burn.”)
Adipurush stars Prabhas as Raghava (Ram), Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Ravana), Kriti Sanon as Janaki (Sita), Sunny Singh as Shesh (Lakshmana), and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang (Hanuman). The makers have promoted it as a devotional film, proclaiming ‘Jai Shri Ram’ while announcing updates on the film’s release, and even asking distributors and theatre owners to set aside a seat in each theatre for the deity Hanuman. In October last year, Prabhas participated in a ‘Ravana Dahan’ event during Dasara and set fire to a Ravana effigy, at the Ramlila (enactment of Ramayana) event organised annually at the Red Fort grounds in Delhi. In the same month, the teaser of the film was released in Ayodhya, but received huge backlash for its poor visual effects. The makers then announced that the VFX would be reworked, and it was this upgrade version that was released in theatres on June 16.
Despite the attempts to appeal to Hindu audiences and right-wingers, since its release the makers of Adipurush have faced overwhelmingly negative criticism from various quarters. The film has been panned for multiple reasons by viewers who have complained of poor filmmaking, writing, and visual effects, while others have alleged that it is a ‘mockery’ of Ramayana.