Public backlash prompts makers to alter 'Adipurush’ dialogues

Mumbai: The makers of "Adipurush," the most recent rendition of the epic Ramayana that has drawn criticism from the public for the subpar dialogue and special effects, have changed some of the lines in the movie. The controversy-ridden movie, which had a strong opening weekend at the box office but saw its earnings plummet as a result of social media backlash, is currently playing in theatres with new dialogue.

Starring Prabhas as Raghav (Ram), Kriti Sanon as Janaki (Sita), and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Raavan), "Adipurush" was released nationwide on Friday in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil.

Directed by Om Raut and produced by T-Series, the big-budget multilingual saga “Adipurush” has been panned on social media over its poor VFX and colloquial dialogues, with dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla under fire for Lord Hanuman’s dialogues in the ‘Lanka Dahan’ sequence, among others.

In the scene, the character of Hanuman had lines like: ‘Kapada tere baap ka toh jalegi bhi tere baap ki’. It is now changed to, ‘Kapda teri Lanka ka… toh jalegi bhi teri Lanka’.

Shukla on Sunday announced that the makers were ready to “revise some of the dialogues” and the amended lines will be added to the film by this week.

In a long post, he also defended himself.

“I can give countless arguments in favour of my dialogues, but this will not lessen your pain. Me and the producer-director of the film have decided that we will revise some of the dialogues which are hurting you and they will be added to the film this week,” Shukla said in the statement shared on his official Twitter account on Sunday.

In his statement, which he wrote in Hindi, Shukla said it is possible that in a three-hour film, he may have written “something different from your imagination for 3 minutes of duration”, but viewers shouldn’t hurry to label him as a “Sanatan drohi”.

“I wrote more than 4,000 lines as dialogues in ‘Adipurush’, some sentiments got hurt on five of those lines. In those hundreds of lines, where Shri Ram was glorified, Maa Sita’s chastity was described, I was hoping to receive praise for them, which I don’t know why I did not get,” he added. T-Series, the studio behind the movie which was mounted on a reported budget of Rs 500 crore, on Wednesday tweeted that the film had earned Rs 395 crore gross in five days.

But a breakdown of these official numbers shows that Monday and Tuesday figures are significantly lower than what the film made on its opening weekend: Rs 140 crore on day one, followed by Rs 100 crore each on day two and three.

In contrast, “Adipurush” earned Rs 35 crore on Monday and Rs 20 crore (gross figures) on Tuesday. The production banner also announced on Wednesday that audiences can now watch the movie at a reduced price of Rs 150 on Thursday and Friday.

“Experience the epic tale in 3D on the big screen at the most affordable price! Tickets starting at Rs 150/... Offer not valid in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” the production banner tweeted.

With PTI inputs