‘Ramayan’ series director Moti Sagar on ‘Adipurush’ backlash: They could have been careful

A still from ‘Adipurush’

Adipurush team could have been careful in their approach towards the Ramayana, says Moti Sagar, one of the directors of the iconic DD show based on the mythological epic.

Directed by Om Raut, Adipurush has been panned on social media over its poor VFX and colloquial dialogues, with writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla under fire for Lord Hanuman’s dialogues in the ‘Lanka Dahan’ sequence, among others.

“Certain dialogues, which I am reading on the news and on Twitter, I can say they could have been careful,” Moti Sagar, who worked on the 1987 show Ramayan with his father Ramanand Sagar and brother Prem Sagar, told PTI.

“He (writer) must have thought of making the film more attractive for the common man, who speaks such language,” the director-producer said.

Adipurush, a retelling of the Ramayana, released in theatres on Friday. It stars Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Janaki and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh.

The multilingual film, produced by T-Series, released across the nation in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.

Many viewers pointed out the oversimplified language used by the characters, especially Hanuman played by Devdatta Nage.

Moti Sagar said the makers approached the film like a superhero movie to connect with the younger audience.

“They would have thought that today’s generation will accept something which is like Marvel comics and other things, something that will connect more with them. Perhaps, they thought they can tell the same story of ‘Ramayana’ but in their language, so people will understand it better,” he added.

Director Raut and writer Muntashir were unavailable for comment when contacted by PTI.

Moti Sagar said creating Ramayan as a TV serial gave them the opportunity to go into the depth of the mythological epic, which is difficult to do in a “three-hour film”.

“This is a totally different genre. I would not compare ‘Ramayan’ that we made with this film. I’ve heard that a lot of effort has gone into the making of this movie, the music and everything. The big stars, they all have worked hard.”

Produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series, Adipursh has a reported budget of Rs 500 crore. The makers claimed the film raised Rs 140 crore on the day one of its release on Friday worldwide.