Amid much furore over the teaser of the Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan-starrer retelling of Ramayana, Adipurush, netizens have made boycott calls against the film. Twitter users have condemned the film for inauthentic depictions of important characters like Lord Rama, Ravana and Lord Hanuman, while adding that the 1987 Doordarshan serial Ramayan by Ramanand Sagar and the 1992 anime Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama by Yugo Sako and Ram Mohan were much more relatable depictions of the epic.
Users also shared screengrabs from the 1987 Ramayan and were of the opinion that this was a more befitting depiction of the epic. A user shared some scenes from the serial and wrote, “No VFX, no Rs 500 crore, no big stars. Just pure, real and simple.. This is how Ramayana should be made. This is how Rama, Sita, Laxman and especially Ravana should look like.”
A user shared a scene from the teaser and wrote, “Please boycott Adipurush. This film would literally defame Indian ancient history. Everything in the teaser is unbelievable, just don’t let them release this film.”
Another user shared a scene from the Adipurush teaser with Prabhas as Lord Rama accompanied by Lord Hanuman and Lakshmana and tweeted, “Ram and Lakshmana wore khadau not leather shoes like the desert civilisation people did. Nonsense movie.”
Another user shared the scene of Sita’s abduction from the 1992 Ramayana anime and wrote, “Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, an Indian-Japanese animated feature film produced 30 years ago, and now remastered in HD. Directed by Ram Mohan, Yugo Sako and Koichi Sasaki, with many animators. Thank you Japan.”
Here are some more tweets
This, however, is not the only challenge facing the Om Raut-directorial. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra has warned the filmmakers of legal actions if objectionable scenes were not removed, further adding that the look of Hindu deities as seen in the teaser is not acceptable.
He was quoted as saying by news agency PTI, “Hanuman ji is shown wearing leather, whereas the description (in the scriptures) of the deity’s costume is different… These are scenes that hurt religious sentiments. I am writing a letter to Om Raut to remove all such scenes from the film. If not removed, we will consider legal action.”
Adipurush will release on January 12, 2023 and has been made on a budget of around Rs 500 crore. The film stars Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, Saif Ali Khan, Devdatta Nage and Sunny Singh in pivotal roles.
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