Adipurush

Adipurush
Directed by	Om Raut
Produced by	Bhushan Kumar Krishan Kumar Om Raut Prasad Sutar Rajesh Nair
Written by	Om Raut Manoj Muntashir
Based on	Ramayana by Valmiki
Starring	Prabhas Saif Ali Khan Kriti Sanon Sunny Singh Devdatta Nage
Music by	Score: Sanchit Balhara Ankit Balhara Songs: Ajay-Atul Sachet–Parampara
Cinematography	Karthik Palani
Edited by	Apurva Motiwale Sahai Ashish Mhatre
Production company	T-Series Films Retrophiles
Distributed by	AA Films (Hindi) UV Creations (Telugu) People Media Factory (Telugu) KRG Studios (Kannada)
Release date	16 June 2023 (2023-06-16)
Running time	179 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu Hindi
Budget	₹500 crore
Box office	est.₹375 crore"Adipurush Day 4 Box Office Collection: Film Collects ₹16 Crore, Records a Drop of 76.85%". Retrieved 20 June 2023.</ref>

Adipurush (transl. First man) is a 2023 Indian mythological action film based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. The film is directed and co-written by Om Raut, and produced by T-Series and Retrophiles. Shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu, the film stars Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon, Sunny Singh and Devdatta Nage.

Adipurush was announced in August 2020, through an official motion poster. Principal photography commenced in February 2021 and ended in November 2021 taking place primarily in Mumbai. The film's music is composed by Ajay–Atul. Adipurush is budgeted at ₹500 crore (US$57 million) making it the one of the most expensive Indian films.

Adipurush was released on 16 June 2023 to negative reviews from critics, who praised the soundtrack and cast performances, but criticised Raut's direction, screenplay, dialogues, visuals and deviation from the source material.

Plot

Raghava is the legendary prince of Ayodhya, in the kingdom of Kosala. He goes into a 14 year exile to the forest, which was urged by his father King Dasharatha on the request of Raghava's stepmother, Kaikeyi. Raghava's travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife, Janaki and brother, Sesh. However, one day, Janaki is kidnapped and taken by Lankesh – the king of Lanka, which resulted in war leading to Lankesh's death and Raghava's eventual return to Ayodhya where Raghava is crowned as the king with jubilation and celebration.

Cast

• Prabhas as Raghava
• Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh
• Kriti Sanon as Janaki
• Sunny Singh as Sesh
• Devdatta Nage as Bajrang
• Vatsal Sheth as Indrajit
• Sonal Chauhan as Mandodari
• Siddhant Karnick as Vibhishana
• Tejaswini Pandit as Shurpanakha
• Ayesha Madhukar as Maya
• Krishna Kotian as Dasharatha
• Sonali Khare as Kaikeyi
• Ajit Shidhaye as Prahasta
• Asha Sharma as Shabari
• Bijay J. Anand as Brahma

Production

Development

Adipurush, an adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, was announced on 18 August 2020, via a promotional poster. Prabhas portrays Lord Rama under the direction of Om Raut who earlier helmed the period action film Tanhaji (2020). Om Raut was fascinated by the 1992 Japanese film Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama and was motivated to adapt the Ramayana into a film using modern technology. Raut wrote the script amidst COVID-19 lockdown in India. Prabhas immediately liked the project and the production company T-Series Films was on-board for the project.

Adipurush is one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, with a budget of ₹500 crore (US$57 million). An amount of ₹250 crore (US$29 million) is estimated to be spent on visual effects. The original budget was initially estimated to be ₹400 crore (US$46 million). However, after the extreme backlash to the visual effects and CGI on the film's teaser, the budget was increased to ₹500 crore (US$57 million) to improve and enhance the visual effects, CGI, lighting and color grading. It was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, while also filmed in 3D.

Casting

In September 2020, the makers revealed that Prabhas is enacting Lord Rama's portrayal whose character name was later revealed as Raghava. Saif Ali Khan who already worked as an antagonist in Raut's Tanhaji has been signed for the role of Ravana with the name Lankesh. After rumours of Anushka Shetty, Anushka Sharma, Kiara Advani, and Keerthy Suresh being approached for the role of Sita, it was reported in November 2020 that Kriti Sanon has been cast to essay the role; her inclusion into the film was confirmed by makers four months later in March 2021. Sunny Singh who joined the sets in February 2021 is playing Lord Rama's younger brother Lakshmana.

Filming

Motion capture shoot for Adipurush begun on 19 January 2021. Muhurtam shot and formal launch was done on 2 February 2021 in Mumbai, India. Principal photography of the movie began that day, as informed by the makers. A massive fire accident took place at the filming location in Mumbai on the same day. Duplicate sets were erected same wise due to the fire breakout. In October 2021, Khan and Sanon wrapped up shoot. On 10 November 2021, the filming was completed.

Music

Adipurush
Soundtrack album by Ajay-Atul and Sachet–Parampara
Released	6 June 2023
Recorded	2021-2022
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	18:22
Language	Hindi Telugu
Label	T-Series
Official audio1
Adipurush (Hindi) - Full Jukebox at YouTube
Official audio2
Adipurush (Telugu) - Full Jukebox at YouTube

The music for both the Hindi and Telugu versions of the film is composed by Ajay-Atul and Sachet–Parampara (noted). The first single titled "Jai Shri Ram" was released in its short version on 6 April 2023 on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti. The full song was released on 20 May 2023 under the same name in Hindi and Telugu alongside dubbed versions (Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam). The second single titled "Ram Siya Ram" (in Hindi) and "Ram Sita Ram" (in Telugu) was released on 29 May 2023.

All lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir.

Hindi track listing

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Jai Shri Ram"	Atul Gogavale, Gwen Dias, Shazneen Arethna, Crystal Sequeira, Marianne D’Cruz Aiman, Umesh Joshi, Swapnil Godbole, Janardan Dhatrak, Vivek Naik, Santosh Bote, Devendra Chitnis, Yash Kulkarni, Mangesh Shirke, Anil Bhilare, Gaurav Dandekar, Siddhant Karawde, Rishikesh Patil, Ameya Paranjape, Vidit Patankar, Yashad Ghanekar, Prasad Manjrekar	3:32
2.	"Shivoham"	Ajay Gogavale	3:56
3.	"Tu Hai Sheetal Dhaara"	Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal	3:21
4.	"Huppa Huiya"	Sukhwinder Singh	3:43
5.	"Ram Siya Ram" (Music by Sachet–Parampara)	Sachet–Parampara	3:50
Total length:			18:22

All lyrics are written by Ramajogayya Sastry.

Telugu track listing

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Jai Shri Ram"	Gwen Dias, Shazneen Arethna, Crystal Sequeira, Marianne D’Cruz Aiman, Umesh Joshi, Swapnil Godbole, Janardan Dhatrak, Vivek Naik, Santosh Bote, Devendra Chitnis, Yash Kulkarni, Mangesh Shirke, Anil Bhilare, Gaurav Dandekar, Siddhant Karawde, Rishikesh Patil, Ameya Paranjape, Vidit Patankar, Yashad Ghanekar, Prasad Manjrekar	3:32
2.	"Shivoham"	Haricharan	3:56
3.	"Priya Mithunam"	Karthik, Shweta Mohan	3:21
4.	"Huppa Huiya"	Sukhwinder Singh	3:43
5.	"Ram Sita Ram" (Music by Sachet–Parampara)	Karthik	3:50
Total length:			18:22

Release

The film's teaser was released on 2 October 2022 on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. The teaser received heavy criticism for its visual effects and CGI. The film's trailer was released on 9 May 2023, and was seen as an improvement from the teaser. An action trailer was released on 6 June 2023.

Theatrical

Adipurush was theatrically released on 16 June 2023 in Hindi and Telugu, along with dubbed versions in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam. It was previously scheduled to release on 11 August 2022, but was later postponed due to the release of Laal Singh Chaddha. The film was postponed again to avoid a clash with Veera Simha Reddy and Waltair Veerayya and also for reworking the visual effects, due to the severe backlash after the release of the teaser trailer.

The film was set to premiere at the Tribeca Festival in the Escape From Tribeca section on 13 June 2023, but was cancelled by the makers later. The film was supposed to be played at the Film festival on June 15 and 17, but it's world premiere, 3 days before the world release had been put down.

The film was also initially scheduled for an IMAX release, which was cancelled later due to the simultaneous release and advance booking of screens for The Flash; the IMAX rulebook does not allow two IMAX films to release on the same day.

The film was initially stopped from release in Nepal citing an issue with a specific dialogue in the film where Goddess Janaki is referred to as the "daughter of India". The controversial dialogue was later removed from the film as per the media reports. Vedic records shows Goddess Sita was born in Mithila, the present day Janakpur in Nepal. This further resulted in all Indian films getting banned from releasing in the Kathmandu Metropolitan area.

Home media

The digital streaming rights of the film were acquired by Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 10%, with an average score of 4.6/10, based on reviews from 10 critics.

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave Adipurush 1.5/5, criticising the screenplay and visuals, and described the film as "a series of clunky computer graphics, bathed in Bollywoodese". Awarding the same rating, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV called the film a "weird blend of fantasy and fallacy". Rediff.com's Deepa Gahlot dismissed it as a "travesty", and criticised the dialogues and the visual effects. Likewise, Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com criticised the writing and visuals of the film, saying "...it all looks cheap and uninspired". Trade analyst Taran Adarsh opined that Adipurush was "an epic disappointment". Scroll.in's Nandini Ramnath wrote that the adaptation "lacks [...] a sense of wonderment".

The Hans India wrote positively about the soundtrack and the first half, however, found the slow-paced narration to be a major drawback. Telangana Today's Kiran praised some technical aspects of the film, but was critical of Raut's handling of the source material and the performances of the cast. Avinash Lohana of Pinkvilla rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and found it to be a "sincere attempt, but a not so sincere adaptation of Ramayana".

Bollywood Hungama found Adipurush to be a "well-made entertainer with a big-screen appeal". Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing "This one's a sincere attempt that gets a tad overwhelmed by its ambition of handling a story of this magnitude". In a mixed review, Anindita Mukherjee of India Today stated that "All in all, we can’t put a stamp on all the hype that Adipurush has been gathering, but it surely deserves one watch at the theatres. For Prabhas, if nothing else."

Box office

Box Office India reported that Adipurush had an "extraordinary first day" at both the domestic and overseas box office, grossing over ₹150 crore (US$17 million) worldwide. The film grossed a total of ₹240 crore (US$28 million) on its second day and a total of ₹313 crore (US$36 million) on its third day/opening weekend and a total of ₹340 crore (US$39 million) on its fourth day.

After a strong opening weekend, the film had a sharp decline in collections on Monday.

Controversy

The film sparked debates and outrage over its dialogues deemed indecent and objectionable, particularly those of Hanuman in the Lanka Dahan sequence. However, writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla defended the film, claiming it was intentional and simplified in order to create some kind of diversion or division between multiple characters. He further claimed said dialogue had been used by the greatest saints, storytellers of India in the same manner, making him not the first one to write this dialogue which was "already there.” Shukla later claimed the film only drew inspiration from Ramayana and was not a direct adaptation of the work. This was soon followed by his subsequent announcement of the team's decision to revise the offensive lines within the first week of release.

On 18 June 2023, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha had lodged a FIR with the Hazratganj police against the producers and cast. In his complaint, Hindu Mahasabha national spokesperson Chaturvedi said that the film was a deliberate attempt to insult Hindu sentiments by distorting the images of Hindu gods with offensive dialogues, costumes.

External links

• Adipurush on IMDb
• Adipurush at Rotten Tomatoes
• Adipurush at Bollywood Hungama