Adipurush Sparks Fierce Protests Across India: Call for Nationwide Ban, Murdabad Chants, Threats

Massive protests have broken out in India as people took the streets to oppose the release of controversial film, Adipurush, for allegedly distorting the Hindu epic Ramayana and its characters in the movie. Directed by Om Raut, Adipurush is an on-screen adaptation of the Ramayana and stars Prabhas as Ram, Kriti Sanon as Sita and Saif Ali Khan as Ravana.

Multiple film theatres across the country have been witnessing fierce protests. Videos uploaded to social media show protestors calling for the film’s boycott while chanting slogans like “Murdabad,” “Hindu dharma ka apmaan band karo (stop insulting Hindu dharma)” and “Maa Sita ka apmaan band karo”. A group of people staged a demonstration in Varanasi and tore posters of the film. While Hindu Mahasabha lodged a complaint with the Lucknow police against the makers of Adipurush on Monday.

Meanwhile, All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to “stop screening” the movie and “immediately order a ban” on Adipurush shows in theatres and OTT platforms in the future. In an open letter, AICWA wrote that the movie “clearly” defamed the image of Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman and hurt “religious sentiments of Hindus and Sanatan Dharma.”

“Adipurush is a complete disaster of our faith in Shri Ram and Ramayana… We need FIR against director Om Raut, dialogue writer Manoj Mantashir Shukla and the producers of the film,” read the letter.

There have been protests over the film in different parts of the country since Monday morning when a group of people disrupted screenings of Adipurush in Delhi and Maharashtra’s Palghar district, claiming that the film had “hurt the sentiments of Hindus” by taking objectionable creative liberties with the epic Ramayana and its characters. The protests and calls for the boycott have only intensified since then.

Saints in Ayodhya have also demanded a ban on the film, alleging that Adipurush has misrepresented the characters of Ramayana and shown Hindu deities in a “distorted manner”. “The dialogues are shameful and the film should be banned immediately,” Head priest of Ram Janmabhoomi, Acharya Satyendra Das, said. “Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman as well as Ravana have been presented in totally different manner. It depicts our deities in completely different form against what we have read and known so far,” he added.

Actor Arun Govil, who played the Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s acclaimed Ramayana on television, has also taken a dig at the makers of Adipurush by questioning their decision to experiment with a subject like Ramayana.

The veteran actor told CNN-News18, “Why do they want to fool around? Why do they want to bring new things or try new things? Leave us alone. Why do you want to touch God in this fashion? Please don’t do that. And what was the need for it? There are so many other subjects. Do your creative liberty there. What do you want to prove by doing this kind of thing?”

In light of the massive outrage, the team of Adipurush on Sunday decided to make “alterations” to the film’s dialogues after a line given to Lord Hanuman’s character in the movie received criticism for sounding “overly colloquial.” While it’s unclear which dialogues have been revamped by the team, the makers said they are revisiting the ones that have not gone down well with the audience, ensuring to resonate with core essence of the film.

On the other hand, Adipurush lyricist and dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla has sought security from the Mumbai Police amid the growing backlash over the film, which hit the theatres on June 16. Manoj has claimed that his life is in “danger” as he received a death threat in the wake of the Adipurush controversy.