Now, Adipurush dialogue writer claims film isn’t an adaptation of the Ramayana after all: ‘We were only inspired’

Manoj Muntashir has said that the film Adipurush is not a retelling of the Ramayana, but is only inspired by it.

New Delhi | June 18, 2023 09:49 AM IST

2 min read

Adipurush was released on June 16.

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Adipurush, directed by Om Raut, has received a mixed response from both critics and audiences. Despite taking an impressive opening at the box office, Adipurush has been criticised for its dialogues and visual effects. However, co-dialogue writer Manoj Munatshir has clarified that the film is not a direct adaptation of the epic Ramayana, but only draws inspiration from it.

In an interview with AajTak, Manoj said that the film was heavily inspired by Ramayana. He said in Hindi, “The name of the film is Adipurush. Let me be clear about two things, we have not made Ramayana, we were only inspired by it. Even if you see our disclaimer, we were very clear about it. It would have been easy for us to name the film Ramayana, keeping in mind the marketing strategies. But we knew from the beginning that we are only heavily inspired by the Ramayana, but we are not making Ramayana. We just made a small chunk of the battle fought in the Ramayana.”

Also read | Adipurush box office collection Day 2: Prabhas-starrer enters Rs 200 crore club despite poor reviews, fan protests

Manoj had earlier defended the dialogues in Adipurush. He said in an interview with Republic, “A very meticulous thought process that has gone into writing the dialogues for Bajrangbali. We have made it simple because we have to understand one thing (that) if there are multiple characters in a film, all of them can’t speak the language. There has to be a kind of diversion, a division.”

In the film, Prabhas plays Raghav, inspired by Rama, while Kriti Sanon portrays Janaki, inspired by Sita. Saif Ali Khan takes on the role of Lankesh, inspired by Ravana. Adipurush, on its opening day, earned over Rs 140 crore on the worldwide box office. It has since passed the Rs 200 crore mark at the box office.

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