Adipurush Controversy: A Quick Timeline of Events

Remember how Lord Hanuman lit up Lanka – the land of demons – to show support to Lord Rama? Looks like a similar sentiment is being ushered by movie buffs towards the makers of the film Adipurush.

On October 2, 2022, the teaser of the film was released on the occasion on Gandhi Jayanti. This teaser was believed to be created by minted crores of rupees and introduced actor Prabhas as Raghava (a reincarnation of Lord Rama), actress Kriti Sanon as Janaki (a reincarnation of Goddess Sita), and actor Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (a reincarnation of Raavana – the demon).

However, soon after the teaser was released, it faced tremendous backlash owing to the poor quality of the visual effects. The teaser showed that the movie was slated to be released on January 12, 2023. However, after deliberations and discussions, the makers of the film decided to postpone the release of the film to June 16, 2023.

People felt hopeful that the makers of the film valued their opinions and the buzz around the film soared tremendously. The director of the film, Om Raut, even thanked the people for showing patience and support towards the film.

Press statements of the film gave confidence, too, that the film is based on the highly regarded mythological epic, Ramayana, and will surely touch the hearts of the people in the country.

After a gap of months, the makers of the film released the much-awaited trailer of the film on June 6, 2023. While some people felt happy to know that the trailer showed a great improvement in terms of visual effects, a significant chunk of people were disappointed with the quality of dialogues and incorrect depiction of visual effects in the film.

Despite the growing uproar, the makers of the film assured people that the film has much more to offer to its viewers than what is depicted in the trailer.

The much-awaited date of the most-looked forward film finally arrived! Adipurush released at the theatres on June 16, 2023.

Because the film is based on the mythological epic Ramayana, the craze around the film has no bounds. Almost all the theatres across the country were house-full on Day 1 of its release. However, social media is a powerful weapon that can often turn the tables on the economic growth of the film.

Soon after, a batch of people, who watched the movie, came out of the theatres and complained against the makers of the film. They were highly unimpressed and deeply disturbed to see the mockery that the makers of the film made in the film.

The film, since its release on Friday, became a subject of ridicule over its poor VFX, bad character design, and–what eventually snowballed into a national controversy–its dialogues penned by Manoj Muntashir Shukla. According to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Adipurush suffered heavily due to poor word of mouth.

On June 20, 2023, the All India Cine Workers Association even wrote a letter to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to ban the film. The letter also requests the “Central Government to file a police complaint against the director of Adipurush, Om Raut who allegedly showed Lord Rama and Goddess Sita in a bad light.”

Furthermore, writer Manoj Muntashir and director Om Raut have received death threats. 

Reacting to this public outrage against the film, the makers of Adipurush issued a statement on Monday, June 19, 2023. "The makers are revisiting the said dialogues, ensuring to resonate with core essence of the film and the same will reflect in the theatres in the next few days. This decision is a testament that despite unstoppable collections at the Box Office, the team is committed, and nothing is beyond the sentiments of their audiences and harmony at large," a statement issued by T-Series read.

Today, T-Series confirmed on Wednesday that the objectionable lines of dialogue in Adipurush have been changed. The new version of the movie is now playing in theatres.

Re-releasing the film with modified dialogues is a costly expenditure. Not only this but even if the rewritten dialogues are delivered on screen, there is no certainty that people will wish to spend money and watch the film again with poor visual effects. Now, only time will tell what the future holds for the film.