#Adipurushdisaster trends after spate of negative reviews for Prabhas-led film

On June 16, National Award-winning filmmaker Om Raut’s adaptation of the Ramayan – Adipurush – released in theatres world-wide. Prabhas fans, who were eagerly awaiting a glimpse of their ‘Darling’, though were in for major disappointment, with much of the actor’s footage being CGI. As for audiences, who were hoping that the film would be a great adaptation of the Ramayana that they could watch with their families, they were in for a shock, at the cinematic liberties that Om Raut took for his version of Valmiki’s epic.

Within hours of the film’s release, there was a flood of ‘reviews’ about the film, mainly negative, from audiences, who disapproved of the filmmaker’s depiction of Raghav/Ram, Lankesh/Ravan, Hanuman and Indrajit, among others. While Prabhas’ jaded look in many scenes was a topic of discussion since the first teaser came out, Ravan’s modern hair-do with gel, getting ‘snake’ massages and flying on a giant bat, Hanuman’s facial hair that made him look more like a Muslim cleric, as well as Indrajit’s modern-day tattoos, were among the many elements of the film that audiences have been dissecting online.

By day 2, #Adipurushdisaster began trending on social media, as netizens began posting screen shots of their cancelled tickets, accompanied with posts of why they had decided against watching the film. But that’s not even the worst of it, users with fairly good follower count, who’d posted negative comments about the film were apparently being enticed by an external agency into deleting these posts and replacing them with more positive ones in exchange for money. Screen shots of these SMS messages were also being shared online. In some extreme cases, users were even being reported for posting anti Adipurush comments.

Despite all this backlash, trade experts are still expecting the film to gross close to Rs 60 crore on day 2, a sharp fall from day 1. It remains to be seen how bookings will hold up on Sunday and the rest of the week.