‘Adipurush’, directed by Om Raut, is an upcoming mythological drama that stars Prabhas in the role of Lord Ram, and Saif Ali Khan as Raavan aka Lankesh. The cast of the film includes Kriti Sanon as Sita and Sunny Singh as Lakshman. The teaser of the film was recently released but it has been making the headlines for not living up to the expectations of fans.
Netizens not only felt that the visual effects were not up to the mark and heavily trolled the teaser for its VFX, netizens were not even happy to see the look of Saif as Lankesh. In fact, the hashtag #BoycottAdipurush started trending on Twitter ever since the teaser was unveiled. Now
Sunil Lahri, who played Lakshman in Ramanand Sagar’s television adaptation of the ‘Ramayan’, has now reacted to the teaser.
The actor told DNA, “After watching the teaser, at present, my views are neutral. It’s neither entirely positive, nor totally negative. They have just introduced the characters and their personalities. So till now, they haven’t conveyed anything that really irked me. I think the ki zabardasti ki controversy create ki ja rahi hai to popularise the film.”
He did, however, admit that he also found the looks of Ram and Raavan a bit strange. But cited it to the fact that there’s no frame of reference to design these idols. “We all have an image set in our minds, and we have grown up watching a particular reference to Lord Ram all these years. So, they have tried to break the conventional image of Raavan. This is an individual take of a creative person, and as an artist, everyone has a right to present their interpretation of a story,” he said.
Commenting on the teaser controversy, Sunil added, “Itna main zaroor kehna chahunga makers aur audiences ko, ki ‘nonsense will not be tolerated anymore in this country.’ Humari jo bhavnaye hai, humare jo dharam se related hai, jinki hum pooja karte hai, aaradhyan maante hai. Unke prati koi bhi negativity ki, toh ab desh bardasht nahi karega. Unhone phele bhi dikha diya, aage bhi yehi hai. Yeh us zamane ka Bharat nahi raha, ab united ho gaye hai log, and I think this unity is positive and beneficial for the country (I will say this, the audience isn’t going to tolerate nonsense in this country anymore, not against our faith, or the gods we pray to. The audience has already shown what it is capable of, and it will do so again. This is the new India, people are united now).”
‘Adipurush’ is Om Raut’s third directorial after ‘Lokmanya: Ek Yugpurush’ and ‘Tanhaji’. ‘Adipurush’ is slated to release in theatres on January 12, 2023.
